The current COVID-19 outbreak in China looks to be subsiding, with no major increase in infections during the Lunar New Year holiday and a sharp decline in fatalities, according to health officials.
The number of severe cases and deaths is also decreasing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday.
The CDC said in a report that there has not been a noticeable increase in Covid cases during the Lunar New Year vacations.
“At this time, no new variants have been identified, and the current outbreak in the country is coming to a close.”
Between January 20 and January 26, when millions of families were reuniting for the holidays, China reported 6,364 COVID-related fatalities.
A week earlier, the CDC announced that 12,658 COVID-related deaths had occurred.
Monday at a media briefing, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng stated, “The overall epidemic situation in the country has reached a low level, and the epidemic situation in various locations has maintained a steady downward trend.”
This year’s Lunar New Year celebration marks the first time in three years that there are no “Zero-COVID” lockdown restrictions in place.
As a result of widespread demonstrations, China abandoned its repressive policies in the beginning of December.
It is estimated that approximately 226 million domestic travels, including flights, were made during the holiday week, according to CCTV, which cited government statistics.
Since December, Beijing has been criticized internationally for its lack of transparency over the number of COVID instances in the country.
Chinese officials initially attempted to assert that few COVID-related deaths had occurred following the policy shift.
The National Health Commission later announced that there were over 60,000 COVID-related deaths between December 8 and January 12 after the organization revised its definition of a COVID-related mortality.
Since December, Beijing has lacked clarity regarding the number of everyday cases the country has seen, as evidenced by the drastic swing in data.
»China COVID deaths are halved as officials signal an end to the epidemic«