Covid cases reaching a peak in China and will start falling next month: leading expert
Covid-19 infections in China are reaching a peak and will start to decline next month, the country's best known respiratory diseases specialist has said, as the authorities urged the public to take precautions.
Zhong Nanshan told the opening of the Guangzhou Science and Technology and Activity Week on Saturday that people with symptoms – particularly the elderly – should seek medical treatment within 48 hours.
He said that in the current cycle, the virus was more infectious and the symptoms were similar to general influenza but with a more obvious sore throat, according to Shanghai-based news site Thepaper.cn.
'This round of coronavirus infections is at its peak and is predicted to decline in June,' said Zhong, who is often described as China's Anthony Fauci. 'From March to May, the number of people infected with the coronavirus has risen, according to data from Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, France, Brazil and Norway.'
Citing data from the Chinese Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he said that between March 31 and May 4, tests on outpatients with flu symptoms and hospital patients with severe symptoms had seen an increase in the number of positives from 7.5 per cent to 16.2 per cent.
However, the overall number of acute respiratory infectious diseases remained at a low level, according to the CDC report released on May 8, but there was an upward trend in the number of positives in April.
Test results showed that all detected pathogens were known common ones and no unknown pathogens or newly emerging infectious diseases had been found.
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