China urges 'final victory' over COVID as global concern mounts over spread

Global health officials tried to determine the facts of China's raging COVID-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread as the government's mouthpiece newspaper on Wednesday rallied citizens for a "final victory" over the virus, Qazet.az reports.

China's axing of its stringent anti-virus controls last month has unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population that has little natural immunity having been shielded from the virus since it emerged in its Wuhan city three years ago.

Funeral homes have reported a spike in demand for their services and international health experts predict at least one million deaths in China this year.

But officially, China has reported a small number of COVID deaths since the policy U-turn and has played down concerns about a disease that it was previously at pains to eradicate through mass lockdowns even as the rest of the world opened up.

"China and the Chinese people will surely win the final victory against the epidemic," Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said in an editorial, rebutting criticism of its tough anti-virus regime that triggered historic protests late last year.