Unconfirmed Chinese reports suggest 250 million COVID infections in December

Leaked documents from China suggest that the country may have recorded as many as 250 million COVID-19 infections in December alone this month, a staggering number that if true would underscore the dire situation facing the Communist country nearly three years into the pandemic.

The figures were part of a leak to emerge out of an internal meeting of the country’s National Health Commission. The NHC reportedly claimed that up to 37 million Chinese residents may have contracted COVID in a single day there. 

The authenticity of the figures could not be confirmed. China has been known to be extraordinarily secretive with its official data related to the pandemic and has received strong criticism for its attempts to cover up viral outbreak in the very earliest days of the crisis. 

The country may very well be poised for a cataclysmically severe outbreak of COVID-19, however, given its draconian strict policies that have kept many citizens isolated from the virus for roughly three years at this point. 

The numbers, if true, dwarf what is China’s earlier record of four million reported COVID cases in one day.