70% of Shanghai's 25 million people may have had Covid: Top doctor

Covid In Shanghai: The rise in the infections in China comes after stringent restrictions were abruptly loosened in the country following widespread protests in the country.

At least 70 percent of Shanghai's population may have been infected with Covid amid China's massive surge in infections, a top doctor at one of Shanghai's hospital said, state media reported. The rise in the infections in China comes after stringent restrictions were abruptly loosened in the country following widespread protests in the country.

Covid In Shanghai: A woman wearing a protective mask and a face shield walks along in a shopping district in Shanghai, China. (Reuters)

Since the decision, hospitals and crematoriums have been overwhelmed owing to a rise in cases as China continues to not report daily infections.

Chen Erzhen, vice president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai's Covid expert advisory panel, said that the majority of the the city's population- 25 million people- may have been infected.

"Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 percent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May)," Chen Erzhe said.

In April last year, Shanghai was in a lockdown for two months amid which over 600,000 residents were infected and put into mass quarantine centres. In other major cities in China, health officials have suggested that the Covid wave has already peaked.

Chen Erzhe said that his hospital was seeing 1,600 emergency admissions daily which is almost double number of infections prior to restrictions being lifted in China.

"More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day," he said, adding, that around half of emergency admissions were vulnerable people aged over 65.

China has only recorded 22 Covid-related deaths since December and has also narrowed the criteria for classifying such deaths, it was earlier reported.