China Covid Wave: China, which is going through its worst phase of the Covid pandemic so far, reported nearly 37 million (3.7 crore approx) new infections in a day this week, ANI cited UK-based Financial Times report.
Meanwhile, a leaked document, purportedly from China's National Health Commission, said around 248 million, roughly 17.56 per cent of the total population were affected by the recent surge in infections from December 1 to 20.
Official media reports say that ICUs in Beijing are under stress as community transmission of the Omicron variant has led to increasingly severe cases -- most of whom are among the elderly -- in a short period of time.
Despite concerns, Beijing and Shanghai virtually returned to normalcy after several weeks with people thronging malls and eateries.
State-run Xinhua reported on Monday that a total of 13 types of COVID-19 vaccines, approved for conditional marketing or emergency use, are now available as the second booster shot in China.
Omicron-resistant vaccines are preferred in choosing second booster doses, it quoted experts.
As of Friday, more than 3.46 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered on the Chinese mainland, with over 90 per cent of the population being fully vaccinated.
Population groups with a high risk of infections, especially people aged 60 and above, people with serious underlying health conditions and those with low immunity are advised to receive a second booster shot six months after the first, the report said.
Those who have received three doses of inactivated vaccines can choose a different type of vaccine -- recommended by the government -- for the second booster, namely a recombinant protein vaccine, an adenovirus vector vaccine or an influenza virus vector vaccine, according to experts.
Xi Jinping speaks for the first time on Covid situation in China
In his fresh directive, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that more targeted patriotic health campaigns should be conducted as the country's COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control faces new situations and new tasks.
Xi demanded more efforts in guiding the public to acquire health knowledge and skills, maintain good personal hygiene and form a healthy lifestyle to build a defence line against the epidemic for the whole society, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
This is the first time that the Chinese president has commented on the grim Covid situation in the country after his government overnight relaxed the stringent zero-covid policy earlier this month following mass anti-government protests.
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