WASHINGTON — 

China says the worst of its fight against the coronavirus outbreak is over. This Friday (the 29th of the twelfth lunar month) is expected to be the busiest day for travel and rail, road and air traffic in China in years. Still, the massive movement of people has heightened fears of a further surge in infections.

Sun Chunlan, vice premier of the State Council, who is in charge of China's response to the new coronavirus outbreak, said that "the overall epidemic situation in the country has been at a low epidemic level recently," Chinese state media reported late Thursday. Earlier, health officials in China said the number of clinics, emergency rooms and critically ill patients had peaked.

But there is widespread skepticism about the Chinese authorities' characterization of the outbreak. After the blockade policy against dynamic clearing occurred in many places in China, the Chinese authorities abandoned the strict prevention and control of the new crown virus epidemic and large-scale testing last month. The Chinese people were unprepared to face the virus. Hundreds of millions of people were recruited in the weeks after the epidemic prevention and control measures were lifted, and hospitals and crematoria were overwhelmed.

Some health experts predict that more than 1 million people will die from COVID-19 in China this year. U.K.-based health data company Airfinity predicts that the death toll from COVID-19 will hit 36,000 a day next week.

"Recently, the overall epidemic situation across the country has been at a relatively low level," Sun Chunlan said in a report by the official Xinhua news agency.

"The number of critically ill patients in the hospital has declined steadily, but the task of treating them is still heavy."

On Friday, the busiest day for travel across China since the outbreak began in late 2019, thousands of migrant workers in cities will return home for the Lunar New Year holiday, which officially begins on Saturday.

Xi Jinping, the Communist Party chief, said this week that he feared a new wave of outbreaks could emerge from an influx of migrant workers into rural areas with weak health care systems, so protecting the elderly — many of whom are not fully vaccinated — is a must It is imperative.

A report released by the World Health Organization on Thursday showed that the number of hospitalized cases of new coronary pneumonia in China increased sharply in the week ended January 15, reaching the highest level since the outbreak began.

Hospitalizations rose 70% from the previous week to 63,307, according to the World Health Organization citing figures provided by Beijing.

But at a news conference on Thursday, health officials from China's National Health Commission said the number of coronavirus patients reported to hospitals peaked on Jan. 17, and fewer severe patients were being treated compared with the peak on Jan. 5. More than 40%.

China said on Saturday that nearly 60,000 COVID-19 patients died in hospitals between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12, roughly a 10-fold increase from previously disclosed figures.

However, that figure does not include people who died at home, and some doctors in China say they are prevented from writing "died of COVID-19" on death certificates.

While China's reopening proved deadly, investors hoped it would eventually help revive its $17 trillion economy, with bets pushing Chinese stocks and the yuan higher in recent sessions. multi-month highs.

"The reopening of China's economy is widely expected to unleash substantial pent-up demand," analysts at Nomura said in a note.

However, analysts warn that falling household wealth and surging youth unemployment caused by years of containment and lockdowns could dampen the economic rebound.