Up to 250m people infected by Covid in China, leaked memo suggests

The leaked figures suggest nearly 37 million people were infected on Tuesday and as many as 248 million people – 18pc of the population – had caught the virus by then.

There are predictions that up to a million people could die as Covid races through the population. Picture: Noel Celis/Getty Images/The Times

Tens of millions of people in China are catching Covid each day, according to a leaked memo, in sharp contrast to official figures acknowledging only a few thousand cases.

The document, ostensibly from the National Health Commission, has not been authenticated but is widely thought to be real. It says nearly 37 million people were infected on Tuesday and as many as 248 million people had caught the virus by then – about 18 per cent of the population.

The figures will add to fears that Covid-19 has spread unchecked since President Xi Jinping’s government lifted its zero-Covid quarantine restrictions.

The memo, which appears to be a summary of a teleconference between government officials, estimates that half the population of Beijing, a city of 22 million, and of the southwest province of Sichuan, home to 84 million, were infected.

The government lifted most prevention and control measures on December 7, effectively abandoning the zero-Covid policy and opting for a herd immunity strategy in an effort to salvage the national economy.

Since then only six deaths have been reported in Beijing, and, by the official account, no one has died of Covid in the past three days in the entire country.

But an estimate by Airfinity, a UK-based health data company, suggested that more than 5000 people were probably dying each day from the coronavirus in China. Other studies, including an analysis from Hong Kong, have suggested a million people will die.

A nurse moves an oxygen tank into a hospital in Beijing. Only six deaths have been officially reported in the capital since the zero-Covid policy was abandoned. Picture: Thomas Peter/Reuters/The Times

Video and testimony on social media portray hospitals as overwhelmed by patients with respiratory illness, and people are said to be collapsing in the street.

Morgues and funeral homes appear to be under strain, with relatives facing long queues to cremate loved ones.

The National Health Commission said this week that it would no longer count deaths from underlying diseases: only those caused directly by the virus are counted.

Hospitals are preparing for a surge of patients in severe or critical condition. Health workers with mild Covid symptoms are expected to work, and retired staff have been called back to ease shortages.

Deji Hospital in Shanghai has told staff to prepare for a “tragic battle”. It expects half of the city’s 25 million people to be infected by the year’s end.

The Times