On video: China opened its borders to the world (Reuters)
About 900 million people in China have been infected with the corona virus as of January 11, according to research by Peking University.
The report estimates that 64 percent of the country's population has contracted or is sick with the virus.
And this is even in districts that are in reasonable condition.
According to the report in Gansu Province, 91 percent of the people infected, Yunnan Province 84 percent and Qinghai Province 80 percent.
A senior Chinese epidemiologist also warned that cases will increase in China's rural areas during the New Year celebrations at the end of this month.
The peak of the corona wave in China is expected to last two to three months, added Zeng Guang, former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese are traveling to their hometowns - many of them for the first time since the epidemic began - ahead of the Chinese New Year which is celebrated on January 23, during which about two billion trips are expected to be made in total and tens of millions of people have already traveled early.
China has stopped providing daily corona statistics since abandoning the "zero infection" policy.
But hospitals in the big cities - where the health facilities are better and more accessible - became overwhelmed with corona patients as the virus spread across the country.
China's central Henan province is the only province to provide details on infection rates — earlier this month a health official there said nearly 90 percent of the population had contracted the virus, with similar rates seen in urban and rural areas.
However, government officials say that many provinces and cities have already passed the peak of infection.
Tens of millions are already on the way for the new year.
Citizens in China (Photo: Reuters, Reuters)
As mentioned last month, China suddenly abandoned the zero infection policy.
It also reopened its borders last Sunday.
Official figures show five deaths a day over the past month, numbers inconsistent with the long queues seen at funeral homes and reports of deaths on social media.
In December, Chinese officials said they plan to publish monthly rather than bi-daily updates on the state of the corona virus in the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said China, which has stopped reporting deaths from the coronavirus, is largely under-reporting deaths from the virus.
Just last week, China's National Health Commission reported 10,681 new cases, and a total of 482,057 cases in the entire country.
Deaths according to official reports totaled 5,267 (one of the lowest death rates in the world), but the United States estimates that more than a million people have died so far.
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