China has witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases, with as many as 248 million people getting infected by the deadly virus in the first 20 days of December, says a Bloomberg News report.

“Nearly 37 million people in China may have been infected with Covid-19 on a single day this week,” the news outlet said while quoting estimates from the government’s top health authority. Though the Chinese officials haven’t confirmed such statistics it has imposed strict restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.

Experts have feared that the virus would spread to other countries. India, a neighbouring country of China, started random testing of passengers at airports on Saturday as part of its Covid protocol. Delhi has introduced a kit to conduct tests of people coming from China, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Why it’s spreading in China?

China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy was in place for almost three years, amid criticism from the West. The severity of such a policy was that many people in different parts of the country took to the streets against it, prompting the government to end it at the start of December. However, the virus outbreak began after this.

China was aware of the impact of such a decision and advised the people to voluntarily maintain social distancing. But, the rate of spread of the virus is higher than the estimates of the authorities.

It is feared that more people would get infected due to public gatherings in the next lunar year.

Is it dangerous for Pakistan?

There are concerns that the new wave of the virus would hit Pakistan since it shares border with China, however, there is a factor because of which it is hoped that the pandemic would not be so intense.

So far, there has been no evidence of Covid resurgence outside China. One of the reasons for the high number of infected cases is the extreme caution taken by Beijing. Indian media reported that the Chinese government had imposed strict lockdowns in different parts of the country at the end of 2019 to prevent the virus spread.

It helped in curtailing the death rates. Another outcome was that the virus did not spread to a large population of China, resulting in a lack of immunity being developed by the people.

Many infected people after recovering from Covid in places like Pakistan, where strict curbs were not put in place in 2020 and 2021, had developed natural immunity. Moreover, the spread had also led to herd immunity (the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through the previous infection, says WHO) in the general population that might help countries.

This herd immunity concept, which was introduced by some governments when the world was trying to make vaccines, did not prove to be useful in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Both countries reported a high number of deaths as they did not opt for imposing lockdowns and taking precautionary measures.

More than 130 million people are fully vaccinated in Pakistan, shows the National Command and Operation Centre data. Over 40 million people have also been administered the booster dose.

The NCOC data showed that as many as 30,635 people died in Pakistan during the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Covid variant in China puts Pakistan at risk: NCOC

The new coronavirus variant spreading in China is a threat to Pakistan, the NCOC said on Saturday.

The Omicron variant is surging weeks after the authorities abruptly ended their zero-Covid policy, lifting strict testing requirements and travel restrictions as China becomes the last major country to move toward living with the virus.

The NCOC officials said that Pakistan is fully prepared to control the new variant, adding that there is a low risk due to the inoculation of the vaccine. The vaccination of 90% of the eligible population in Pakistan has been completed, they added.

Pakistan on Saturday reported one death over the last 24 hours by the coronavirus as the number of confirmed positive cases has surged to 1,575,665. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 30,636 so far.

At least 13 persons tested positive for the virus across the country in a single day, the National Institute of Health (NIH) data showed. The Covid positivity ratio was recorded at 0.30 percent.