Around 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day fromCovid-19, UK-based health data firm Airfinity said on Thursday, nearly doubling its estimate from a week ago, as infections ripped across the world's most populous nation.
Covid infections started to sweep across China in November, picking up pace this month after Beijing dismantled its zero-Covid policies including regular PCR testing on its population and publication of data on asymptomatic cases.
Maharashtra on Thursday reported 27 new coronavirus infections which took the tally of cases in the state to 81,36,615, the health department said in a release. With one death being reported since previous evening, the death toll due to the pandemic rose to 1,48,417.
Maharashtra had reported 26 newCovid-19 cases and one death on Wednesday. A resident of Navi Mumbai, who arrived by an international flight at the Mumbai airport, tested positive and his swab sample has been sent for genome sequencing, the release said. With 14,648 swab samples tested since previous evening, the number ofCovid-19 tests conducted across the state so far rose to 8,59,04,776. Pune administrative circle recorded the highest 12Covid-19 cases, followed by Mumbai circle with 11 cases.
Italy's screening of visitors from China has not detected any new coronavirus variants, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday, a day after mandatory testing was introduced.
Those who have tested positive so far are carriers of "Omicron variants already present in Italy", Meloni told her end-of-year press conference.
Italy made the tests on arrivals from China mandatory on Wednesday following an explosion in cases reported by Beijing.
Meloni said the screening was likely to be less effective than if it was being done on a European level, as only people arriving on direct flights from China were being tested, not those with stopovers.
Health Minister Orazio Schillaci would be pushing for the EU to roll out bloc-wide screening, she said.
Moves by several countries to mandateCovid-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough.
There have been no reports of new variants to date, but China has been accused of not being forthcoming about the virus since it first surfaced in the country in late 2019. The worry is that it may not be sharing data now on any signs of evolving strains that could spark fresh outbreaks elsewhere.
The US, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have announced testing requirements for passengers from China. The US cited both the surge in infections and what it said was a lack of information, including genomic sequencing of the virus strains in the country.