China Lunar New Year: Chinese ring in new year with big party despite Covid

Between January 13 and January 16, China reported 13,000 deaths due to Covid in hospitals, adding to the 60,000 recorded this month already. Since China eased its strict Covid rules last December, hospitals and funeral homes have been overwhelmed due to the sudden surge in infection.

China rang in the Lunar New Year on Sunday with large family gatherings and crowds at places of worship across the country after the government lifted its 'zero Covid' policy, making this one of the biggest festive celebrations since the pandemic began three years ago.

A worshipper wearing a face mask makes an offering of incense sticks ahead of the Lunar New Year, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Hong Kong, China, Sunday. (Reuters)

Top points about China's Lunar New Year celebrations and Covid surge:

1. In China, each year is named in a repeating cycle after one of the 12 signs of Zodiac. This year has been named the ‘Year of the Rabbit’. For the first time since the pandemic, people across China could make trips back to their hometowns without fear of quarantine, lockdowns, and travel restrictions.

2. Also called the Spring Festival, Beijing hosted thousands of cultural events - on a larger scale than last year - to mark the beginning of the new year.

3. According to Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at China’s Center for Disease Control, the mass movement of people may cause the virus to spread in certain areas but a large-scale Covid-19 surge is unlikely as 80 per cent of the country's 1.4 billion people have already been infected during the recent wave in January.

4. Between January 13 and January 16, China reported 13,000 deaths due to Covid in hospitals, adding to the 60,000 recorded this month already. Since China eased its strict Covid rules last December, hospitals and funeral homes have been overwhelmed due to the sudden surge in infection.

5. Keeping the economic slowdown and the public's demand for normalcy in mind, the Chinese government had decided to end its world's rigorous regime of Covid controls and mass testing.

(With agency inputs)