A new wave of Covid is overwhelming China and threatening world health

Just as the world was turning the page on the Covid-19 pandemic, a new wave of infections in China has overwhelmed the country and is and threatening global health.

China recently began a transition from its 0 Covid policy, which had restrictions so severe that they provoked social protest, towards a model that gave their citizens more freedom. But this change also prompted an outbreak of infections that have collapsed hospitals and caused shortages of some medicines according to information from international media.

According to the BBC, the Chinese government has admitted to an average of 5,000 infections a day "but analysts say those numbers are grossly underestimated and the daily number of cases may be closer to 1 million."

Recent data from Italy back up the assessment that China's Covid count might be closer to 1 million. Citing the Italian Ministry of Health, American news outlet Bloomberg noted roughly 50% of Chinese travelers entering Italy were testing positive for Covid-19.

Media outlets like CNBC have reported that the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasted China's new outbreak could lead to a million more deaths by 2023. But the Chinese government has yet to offer any data on deaths.

With images of overflowing hospitals and worrying data coming out of China, countries like the United States and Italy have already announced that they will require negative Coivd tests from all Chinese citizens who wishing to visit their countries.

Chinese officals recently announced that as of January 8, 2023, China would open its borders to travel without restrictions, eliminate quarantines, and return to its pre-pandemic normality.

But with such a massive number of infections building, global experts are wondering if there's a serious danger that Chinese infections will spread across the world.

A recent Bloomberg headline on December 21 read, "Covid tsunami in China could unleash a dangerous new variant that infects the world,"  and it perfectly echoed the biggest fear of the global scientific community.

According to France 24, the Chinese government is calling the reporting on its new Covid outbreak "exaggeration, defamation, and political manipulation" incited by the Western media.

While Western media may be addicted to the idea of a new Covid outbreak, they aren't wrong in pointing out the similarities between China's current situation and the one it faced at the start of the pandemic. The country is facing overcrowded hospitals, morgues full of corpses, and a serious lack of medicines, signs that are all too familiar...

However, mass vaccination can make a big difference, even in China. Unfortunately, China's Sinopharm vaccine (according to some experts) is less effective, but it does have some degree of protection.

For the Chinese, 2023 will begin with a difficult health situation. Now the fear is that the rest of the planet will return to where we were at the beginning of the pandemic.

Luckily, today's world is not the same as the one that faced the first wave of coronavirus: no we know how it is transmitted, there are enough tests to detect it, we have some treatments that can stop lethality and, above all, there are vaccines that can be adapted if a dangerous new variant appears.

Vaccines are out best chance at defeating the virus at present. But there is one more hope to finally beat Covid-19, namely, that of a globalized society willing to set new travel restrictions and mask mandates in order to stem the growth of any new threatening Covid-19 outbreak.

Scientific advances, confidence in health systems, and the resilience of the human being are three elements that will allow us to overcome the pandemic an finally close the chapter on this period of our history.