Launch patriotic health campaign: Xi Jinping tells officials in his 1st remarks on Covid situation in China

"Covid-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks," the Chinese President.

Beijing, Dec 26: As the reports claim that over 25 crore people have been infected with Coronavirus in three weeks, Chinese President Xi Jinping, for the first time, has spoken about the current situation.

"At present, Covid-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks," the Chinese President said in a directive, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

"We should launch the patriotic health campaign in a more targeted way... fortify a community line of defence for epidemic prevention and control, and effectively protect people's lives, safety and health," Xi said.

The hospitals and crematoriums in China have been flooded with Covid-19 patients. As a leaked document claimed that over 25 crore were affected by Covid-19 since the stringent zero Covid-19 policy was lifted a few weeks ago, China's National Health Commission on Sunday announced it would stop publishing daily nationwide infection and death statistics.

However, China has admitted that it was "impossible" to track the cases following the end of mandatory mass testing, as people are now not obliged to declare test results to authorities.

According to health officials in Zhejiang province, one million are being affected by Covid-19 per day in the said region, 500,000 new daily infections in Qingdao and 250,000 to 300,000 cases in Dongguan.

The country's zero-COVID policy deployed mass testing and strict quarantine measures, which were revised earlier this month in the wake of anti-government protests.

Several Chinese cities endured lengthy lockdowns, often prompted by a handful of infections and there were indications that people were starting to run out of patience.

The days prior to the announcement by the National Health Commission saw protests in several cities, including one in Shanghai in which the crowd chanted "we don't want COVID-19 tests, we want freedom".

Meanwhile, ICUs in Beijing are still under stress as community transmission of Omicron has led to increasingly severe cases - most of whom are elderly - in a short period of time, state-run Global Times reported on Saturday.

Beijing only admitted seven Covid-related deaths so far amid reports of increasing arrivals at morgues and crematoriums.

With inputs from agencies