With growing concerns about the reliability of the Beijing government’s Covid-19 case report, local officials in Chinese cities and provinces reportedly expect the outbreak to peak in January.
China is suffering an unchecked spread of Covid, with cities and provinces reporting hundreds of thousands of daily infections exceeding the official national total.
The National Health Commission of China (NHC) on Sunday has decided to stop publishing daily Covid-19 case figures after concerns were raised about the reliability of the data. This comes after millions have been infected across the country while the official total remains pretty low.
Since the true tally of the outbreak in the country is unknown, estimating the economic impact is difficult.
Zhejiang province, China’s eastern manufacturing and technology heartland, estimates that it currently sees 1 million Covid cases per day. This amount could potentially quadruple in two weeks before moderating later in January, according to local officials at a press conference on Sunday.
Zhengzhou, the iPhone’s production hub, meanwhile, expects Covid infections to peak in the middle of January. According to local reports, nearby Shangdong and Hubei provinces are also expecting a spike around the same time.
