The streets of China’s major cities were eerily quiet on Sunday as people stayed at home to ward off a wave of COVID-19 cases that has engulfed urban centers across the country, Reuters reported.

According to Wu Zunyou, the country’s chief epidemiologist, China is currently in the first of three expected waves of COVID-19 infections this winter.

Cases could rise across the country if citizens travel again en masse for Chinese New Year next month.

China has yet to officially report a single death from Covid-19 since December 7, when the country suddenly lifted most major restrictions as part of a “zero Covid” policy following unprecedented public protests against them.

As part of the easing of zero-covid restrictions, mass testing for the virus has been halted, casting doubt on whether the number of officially reported cases can capture the full extent of the epidemic.

China reported 2,097 new symptomatic coronavirus cases on Saturday.

People were hiding in their houses, fearing Covid

In Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible variant of Omicron has already affected catering and parcel delivery services.

Funeral homes and crematoria in the city of 22 million are also not keeping up with demand.

Social media posts also showed empty subways in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an as Chinese people complained online about delivery delays.

In Chengdu, the streets were deserted, but food delivery times had improved, said a resident surnamed Zhang, as services began to adjust to the recent surge in cases.

However, getting tests for Covid is still difficult, Zhang said, adding that the products she ordered were sent to the hospital.

Three big covid waves before spring

In Shanghai, authorities said schools should move most classes online from Monday, while in the nearby city of Hangzhou, most schools were urged to end the winter term early.

In Guangzhou, those already taking online classes and preschoolers do not need to prepare to go back to school, the education bureau said.

At a conference in Beijing on Saturday, Wu, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the current outbreak will peak this winter and unfold in three waves over about three months.

The first wave will run from mid-December to mid-January, mostly in cities, before a second wave will start from late January to mid-February next year, triggered by travel ahead of the week-long New Year holiday.

China will celebrate the Lunar New Year on January 21. This holiday usually sees hundreds of millions of people return home to spend time with family.

A third wave of cases is expected from late February to mid-March, when people return to work after the holidays, Wu said.

There could be a million deaths from covid in China

An American research institute said the other day that the world’s most populous country could see an explosion of cases, and in China more than a million people could die from COVID in 2023.

Wu said that the number of serious cases in China has fallen in recent years and that the vaccination that is already in place offers some degree of protection.

He said those in the community who are vulnerable should be protected, while recommending revaccination for the entire population.

Nearly 87 percent of people over 60 have been fully vaccinated, but only 66.4 percent of people over 80 have had a full round of vaccinations, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

(article photo: © Imtmphoto | Dreamstime.com)