China estimates 37M infected with COVID in one day, stoking global fears new variant on horizon

By: Olivia L.

Nearly 37 million people may have reportedly contracted COVID-19 in China on a single day – an alarming surge which is raising fears that a dangerous new variant could emerge.

Minutes from an internal meeting of the National Health Commission revealed that as many as 248 million people – nearly 18% of China’s population – came down with the virus in the first 20 days of December, with a surge that began in Beijing spreading to rural regions, Bloomberg News reported.

Some 37 million may have been infected on Dec. 20 alone, the news outlet reported.

It is unclear how Chinese health officials arrived at the estimate since the government doesn’t release detailed data on COVID and the country’s network of PCR testing booths was shut down earlier this month.

But the disturbing uptick is worrying medical experts and others in the US and abroad.

“There will certainly be more omicron subvariants developing in China in the coming days, weeks and months, but what the world must anticipate in order to recognize it early and take rapid action is a completely new variant of concern,” Daniel Lucey, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America and professor at Dartmouth University’s Geisel School of Medicine, told Bloomberg.

“It could be more contagious, more deadly, or evade drugs, vaccines and detection from existing diagnostics.”

The 37 million cases estimated for Tuesday, Dec. 20, represent a dramatic shift from the official tally of 3,049 infections reported in China that day.

If accurate, the new numbers far surpass the previous daily infection record of 4 million from January 2022.

The figures will also add to concerns that COVID is running rampant after the Communist government lifted quarantine restrictions under the “zero COVID” policy earlier this month, the Times of London noted.

Chinese residents are no longer required to report positive test results, and President Xi Jinping’s regime is no longer publishing the daily number of asymptomatic cases.

Chef Qin, chief economist at MetroDataTech, told Bloomberg News the reopening waves will likely peak between mid-December and late January, and may be responsible for tens of millions of daily infections.

Chef predicted the largest case counts will be in the cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Chongqing.

While the health commission minutes did not disclose how many people have died in the surge, it did cite head physician Ma Xiaowei for a new, narrower definition of COVID fatalities.

According to Ma, only those who die from COVID-induced pneumonia will be counted in the mortality rates.

Nevertheless, China is closely watching omicron subvariants circulating in the country – especially since a variant could pose a new threat for the world. And Lucey warned  the world has to prepare so vaccines, treatments and other necessary measures can be ready.

Omicron “came out of nowhere,” Stuart Turville, a virologist at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute,, told Bloomberg News.

“It made an evolutionary change in a way that’s different. If that’s the path, and it spreads more easily, there might be another parachuting event, where it takes a trajectory we don’t expect.”

Meanwhile, hospitals in China remain overwhelmed by the sudden influx of patients, while crematoriums grapple with the wave of deaths.

Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the state-aligned newspaper the Global Times, shared a social media post urging the country to move forward amid the terrifying spike in infections.

“We cannot let the service secor such as tourism get decimated. We cannot let more people lose jobs or wages,” he wrote. “We cannot have children who cannot go to school in a normal way, or families who cannot reunite upon holidays.”