Academician Zhang Boli: Spring Festival is likely to cause a new wave of infection mini-peak, rural areas should focus on

Read Time:3 Minute, 15 Second

Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — On the first day of the Spring Festival (Jan. 7), a total of 34.736 million passengers were sent by rail, road, waterway and civil aviation nationwide, up 11.1 percent from the previous year and 38.9 percent more than the same period in 2022.

Will the increased movement of people during the Spring Festival trigger a new wave of infection peaks? What self-protection measures should travelers take before and after departure and during the journey?

On Jan. 7, the first day of the Spring Festival, tourists queued up in an orderly manner at Beijing Station to wait for the train.
Reporter: During the Spring Festival, will the number of infections rebound around the world?

Academician Zhang Boli: Spring Festival is traditionally the peak period of China’s population migration. With the further optimization of the epidemic prevention and control policy, the mobility of people across regions will be accelerated and released, especially since many people have recovered from the infection and have a stronger demand for travel, the passenger flow of this year’s Spring Festival will definitely increase significantly and certain routes may return to the level before the epidemic.

However, it is worth noting that the great migration of people in the spring will accelerate the spread of the current infection rate is not yet high in the cities, and the rural areas are even weaker, if a large number of people from urban mobility to rural areas, it will directly lead to infection, increased risk of infection, aggravate and accelerate the spread of the epidemic in the region. Therefore, there is a high probability that a new wave of infection will be caused by a small peak after the spring campaign. Therefore, remote and rural areas with small and slow movement of people before need to focus on, and relevant departments need to prepare for a rainy day and make preparations for drugs and medical resources to strengthen the response.

Reporter: What are the suggestions for travelers during the Spring Festival?

Academician Zhang Boli: After several years of the epidemic, it is completely understandable that people are eager to go home for Chinese New Year, visit the elderly, and celebrate the reunion, but we remind everyone that they need to consider the whole situation and travel carefully.

If you are traveling, for the general public, the best way to prevent it is to maintain personal protective measures. When taking airplanes, trains, subways, buses and other means of transportation on the way home for the Spring Festival, it is important to wear a mask throughout the journey and pay attention to personal protection such as hand hygiene.

For newly recovered patients, the best way to prevent secondary infection during the outbreak is still to implement good protective measures, including wearing a mask, paying attention to hand hygiene, diligent ventilation, maintaining social distance, and paying attention to rest. Especially for elderly people and children with “positive to negative” disease, they should keep warm, gather as little as possible, ensure good hygiene and pay attention to nutritious diet to strengthen immunity and reduce the risk of re-infection.

Reporter: What will be the overall trend of the next national epidemic development?

Academician Zhang Boli: The world’s epidemic is “one wave after another”, and in the long run, we will also experience a period of recurrence of this epidemic. However, because of the high infection rate of the first wave of the epidemic in China, according to the law of virus transmission, the time and severity of the next epidemic will be delayed, and the next epidemic will probably be less severe than the scale and severity of this one. It can be said that we can overcome the epidemic, but not the virus, and our understanding of the virus needs to be further studied, and the possibility of mutation and recombination of the virus still exists.