Coronavirus
China’s flu infections are on the rise as COVID-19 ebbs
Bloomberg News
February 26, 2023
Staff members receive the novel coronavirus strain transported from Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a laboratory of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2020. In February of 2023, China’s flu infections rose while COVID-19 cases continued to drop from a December peak after the nation eased pandemic restrictions. (Liu Peicheng/Xinhua via Zuma Wire/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — China’s flu infections rose while COVID-19 cases continued to drop from a December peak after the nation eased pandemic restrictions.
The flu positivity rate jumped to 14.3% in the seventh week of 2023 from 3.4% previously, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in its weekly COVID-19 surveillance report Saturday. The COVID-19 positivity rate dropped further to 3.4% in the same week from 4.1%.
The number of COVID-related death at medical institutions fell to 7 in the seven-day period ending Feb. 23, with all of them dying from underlying diseases and none from respiratory failure. The number of COVID-19 cases infected with omicron subvariants known as XBB in local transmission ticked up slightly to 6.
A number of schools across China halted classes earlier this week to stem the spread of COVID-19 and other pathogens ranging from flu to the norovirus. Shanghai suspended in-person teaching in an elementary school class after four students were diagnosed with the flu and others developed similar symptoms, while eastern e-commerce hub Hangzhou introduced similar moves after some students tested positive for COVID-19 on rapid antigen tests.
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