BEIJING: Coronavirus infections have been prevalent in Beijing for the past four weeks, health authorities in the Chinese capital reported on Friday as a new wave of Covid-19 sweeps the country, reported German news agency (dpa).

Schools in some parts of the country have been told to take precautionary measures.

Leading Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan is expecting around 65 million new cases of infection per week at the end of June, when he expects the wave to peak, according to state media.

Zhong is assuming there are currently around 40 million new cases per week.

While between 80 and 90 per cent of China's 1.4 billion population are believed to have been infected in the December and January wave, experts said immunity levels have now declined.

There are no official figures yet for the number of deaths from the virus in the winter. Estimates by foreign experts put the figure at around one million.

The authorities had postponed the publication of mortality figures for the fourth quarter of 2022 on Wednesday. Crematoria were unable to cope with the dead at the time.

China abruptly abandoned its strict zero-Covid strategy after three years in December. Hospitals were ill-prepared for the consequences.

An infection wave similar to the last is not expected this time, but health authorities are warning that the elderly and sick are at risk.

-- BERNAMA