China faces 'wildfire' Covid outbreak as world's toughest lockdown policy ends

Xi Jinping has conceded defeat and reversed a number of punitive measures that made up his Zero Covid policy, which sparked nationwide protests demanding his resigned last month

Medical workers wear PPE as they push a patient on a stretcher past a fever clinic in Beijing last week (

Image: Getty Images)

An epidemic of Covid "wildfire" will spread in China after Beijing ends one of the strictest confinements in the world.

Xi Jinping's Zero Covid policy, which sparked nationwide protests demanding his resignation, now appears to have been abandoned as a number of his punitive measures are reversed.

The duration of the confinement has been reduced and the children have been sent back to school.

This comes as the country's immunization program suffers from patient weight.

Some fear the rapid turnaround could trigger a wave of new infections, as only 25% of Chinese citizens have been bitten.

Dr Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, warned that the new wave would rip through China like an "explosion".

A health worker takes a swab sample from a man in Shanghai (

Picture:

AFP via Getty Images)

Him: "If you look at the numbers, only about 25% of Chinese are immune to Omicron.

"If they open, 75% of the population will be infected.

"They can't handle the explosion of infections and hospitalizations. It will spread like wildfire."

Questions have also been raised about the...