Thousands gather in China's Wuhan, epicentre of Covid-19, to celebrate New Year

Beijing: Amid China`s Covid wave, thousands of people gathered in Wuhan on Saturday night to celebrate the New Year after the authorities rolled back its stringent "zero-Covid" policy, Reuters reported.In this new year celebration, Civilians released balloons into the sky when the clock struck 12, as per the tradition in Wuhan, where the Covid story has begun.

"In the past year, I feel that COVID-19 was very serious and some of my family members have been hospitalised," 17-year-old Wuhan high school student, surnamed Wang, told Reuters from the riverside shortly after midnight, according to Reuters.

"I hope they will be healthy in the new year. This is the most important thing." "I am afraid," said a lady surnamed Jin, referring to the possibility of being reinfected with COVID-19, as per Reuters. "I was still afraid when I came out tonight, but I just wanted to come out, because everyone has come out," she added.

"Those restrictions were in place for too long, so perhaps people were pretty unhappy," said 24-year-old Wuhan resident surnamed Chen, who works in e-commerce. "It had been a long time since things were lively and vibrant," reported Reuters.

Earlier, news.com.au, an Australia-based publication reported that the deaths attributed to COVID in China have increased to 9,000 people per day, according to a data firm. The news.com.au report also says that: "British-based research firm Airfinity has doubled the number of people it estimates are dying from COVID in China as the number of infections soar. It comes after Beijing lifted draconian zero-COVID health measures in November that had been in place for years."

Protests erupted across China due to the harsh lockdowns after 10 people died in an apartment fire. There were allegations that firefighters were stopped from coming inside the apartment block due to the quarantine orders. The country reversed its COVID policy due to widespread protests in nine cities across China.

"Airfinity said its model was based on data from China`s regional provinces before changes to reporting infections were implemented, combined with case growth rates from other former zero-Covid countries when they lifted restrictions," reported news.com.au.

The total number of deaths in China linked to COVID in December may hit 100,000, with at least 18.6 million cases. By mid-January, there could be as many as 3.7 million COVID cases in a day.By January 23, a total of 584,000 deaths are expected in China.

According to news.com.au, "Beijing has been accused of withholding health information so it`s hard to accurately assess the numbers. However, China`s National Health Commission (NHC) last week confirmed that the country`s current outbreak is the largest the world has ever seen."

"More than a billion Chinese could be infected with COVID by March. And more than 30 per cent of the population may have already been infected, that is up to 400 million people," according to a The Australian report.