Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in China after the easing of the “Covid zero” policy.

coronavirus infections “spread rapidly” in Chinaa top government epidemiologist adviser warned this Sunday, following Beijing’s decision to do so abandon its “Covid zero” policy..

Chinese health authorities announced on Wednesday a general easing of anti-covid measures that included massive lockdowns and tests, a strong restrictive strategy that ended up hitting the country’s economy and led to a historic wave of protests that did not were seen in the country by the pro-democracy movement of 1989.

With the goal of large-scale, systematic PCR testing and the ability to isolate at home in mild, asymptomatic cases, the country is recording record numbers of infectionsand the heavy week brought back to record of over 60,000 in a single day.

“Currently, the epidemic in China (…) is spreading rapidly, and under these circumstances, whatever the strength of prevention or control, it will be difficult to completely cut the transmission chain” of the viruswarned Zhong Nanshan, a leading health expert who has advised the Chinese government since the start of the pandemic, in an interview with state media published on Sunday.

“The current subvariants of Ómicron (…) are very contagious“added Zhong, who specified it “one person can pass it on to 22 people”.

China is facing a surge in infections it is ill-prepared for, with Millions of elderly people who have not yet completed the vaccination scheme and hospitals without the capacity to take in so many patients.

Long lines formed in front of pharmacies in Beijing today to stock up on fever medicines and antigen tests.

“I’m afraid to go out,” Liu Cheng, a mother of two who lives in the center of the Chinese capital, told AFP news agency. “Many” of her friends “have symptoms or have tested positive,” she added.

The decision to ease health restrictions came five days after the country recorded a new spike in infections with more than 62,400 in a single day and a weekly average of around 41,000 per day.

Since that day, the curve has been declining and 12,755 cases were recorded on Saturday, which lowered the weekly average to just over 23,000 daily infections, according to data from Our World in Data.

But the numbers continue to be alarming.

Such a rate of cases has not been seen since April of this year, as has the speed of the infection. It took just 40 days to go from 1,300 daily cases on Nov. 1 to nearly 31,000.