China may have reported 37 million coronavirus cases in a day this week, making it the largest single-day spike ever, as per a report by Bloomberg which quoted an estimate from the government's top health authority.
The report estimates that 248 million people in China were likely infected in the first 20 days of December this year. The Bloomberg report quotes minutes from an internal meeting of China’s National Health Commission held on Wednesday
Thirty-seven million daily cases were registered on December 20, as per the report. The figures are a huge deviation from China’s official tally, which claimed that just 3,049 infections were recorded that day.
If the estimate of 37 million daily cases is accurate, the numbers would shatter the previous single-day case record of 4 million reported in January 2022.
China has been facing a surge in infections weeks after it made a turnaround on its zero-Covid policy. Several videos have been shared on social media platforms showing overburdened hospitals as the health system came under immense pressure following Covid spike.
Epidemiologists have forecast that millions of people are likely to be infected with the virus in the coming few months, and millions may succumb to the virus. The dire warning once again grips China three years after the virus breakout was first reported.