China on Saturday marked the first day of 'chun yun', the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel known pre-pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people, bracing for a huge increase in travellers and the spread of Covid-19 infections.
People wear protective face shields enter the Beijing Railway Station as the annual Spring Festival travel rush starts, amid the coronavirus disease , ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 7, 2023.China on Saturday marked the first day of “chun yun”, the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel known pre-pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people, bracing for a huge increase in travellers and the spread of Covid-19 infections.
But the abrupt changes have exposed many of China's 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering a wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of medication and causing long lines to form at crematoriums. “I dare not go back to my hometown, for fear of bringing the poison back,” said one such comment on the Twitter-like Weibo.
More than a dozen countries are now demanding Covid-19 tests from Chinese travellers, as the World Health Organisation said China's official virus data underreported the true extent of its outbreak.
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