Beijing: The Chinese authorities are rushing to push out vaccines to combat an ongoing new wave of the coronavirus that is expected to peak in June and infect as many as 65 million people a week since the new XBB variants of the virus are evolving to overcome the immunity developed after China’s abrupt departure from its “zero covid” policy last year, sources said.

According to official media sources, quoted by The Washington Post, leading Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan on Monday said that two new vaccinations for the XBB omicron subvariants (including XBB. 1.9.1, XBB. 1.5, and XBB. 1.16) have been given preliminary approval. Speaking at a biotech symposium in Guangzhou, Zhong said that three to four other vaccines will soon receive approval, but he gave no further information.

The new outbreak may be the greatest wave of illnesses ever recorded since China’s stringent zero-Covid programme was abandoned last winter, which resulted in up to 85 per cent of the population being sick at the time.

Although there was an increase in infections in the United States as a result of the new variations, the public health emergency was nevertheless proclaimed to be over on May 11 even though specialists have not ruled out the possibility of new variants causing another wave of illnesses in the years to come, according to sources.

Officials in China claim that the current wave will be less severe, but public health experts believe that to avoid another surge in mortality among the massive elderly population of the nation, a vigorous vaccination booster programme and a ready supply of antivirals in hospitals are essential.

Another epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, “The number of infections will be less. The severe cases will certainly be less, and deaths will be less, but that could still be a large number,” adding, “Even when we think this is a milder wave, it could still be quite a substantial health impact on the community.”

According to the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the variations have increased the number of cases since last month, with Covid surpassing the flu as the most prevalent infectious disease over the final two weeks of April.

The public has been reassured by health experts that reinfections have milder symptoms and that hospitals won’t be overloaded as they were during the previous winter.

Even still, restrictions similar to those that existed during the zero-Covid era, when China tried to stop any illnesses, have not been reinstated, and the majority of citizens seem to be going about their daily lives as usual.