In a rare video speech, President Xi Jinping said China is facing difficult times as COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed after the government eased curbs last month — one of the most direct acknowledgments of the deepening health crisis in Beijing.
What happened: Xi addressing his people eve of the lunar new year, Called for more efforts to contain the virus given the increasing spread of Covid-19 in rural China.
The Chinese leader said the The country is in the midst of a “violent” outbreak and his COVID fight takes endurance as “dawn is imminent.”
The Chinese New Year holiday marks the world’s largest annual human migration. Chinese officials have forecast that the 1.4 billion people will make 2 billion trips to visit family in the coming weeks.
Xi, speaking from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, said authorities are now “mainly concerned about rural areas and rural residents” as the Asian nation enters a “new phase” in its pandemic response.
That came after China reported nearly 60,000 Covid-related deaths for the first five weeks of its current outbreak – what experts have warned is the “tip of the iceberg”.
Zuo Feng ZhangChair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Bloomberg that China’s COVID fatality rate is probably still underestimated given the magnitude of the outbreak.
In the meantime, China confirmed the US Secretary of State on Wednesday Anton Blinkenthe eagerly awaited visit into the country amid souring relationships.
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