China’s third most populous province Henan is battling a surge in Covid cases as around 90 percent of people have now been infected with Covid-19, a top official said as per new agency AFP. “As of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0 percent”, Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province said.

The province has a population of 99.4 million people. This implies that almost 88.5 million people in Henan may now have be Covid positive, as per the official. Kan Quancheng added that visits to clinics peaked mid-December “after which it showed a continuous downward trend”.

This comes as China abruptly lifted its stringent ‘zero-Covid’ policy that was in place since the pandemic began. The policy which included lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing sparked rare protests across China. Beijing also lifted mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals and also opened its border with Hong Kong.

Millions in China are expected to travel from big cities to visit rural areas in China as the country celebrates Lunar New Year later this month. With this infections are expected to rise in the country as official data showed 34.7 million people travelled domestically- a jump by more than a third compared to last year.

However, official data last week stated that just 120,000 people have been infected and 30 died since China relaxed Covid curbs. This comes at a time when China narrowed the definition of Covid deaths. Beijing also made mass testing no longer compulsory with experts warning that Covid data from China are no longer reflective of the true scale of the outbreak.