China's withdrawal of Covid curbs could lead to over 2 mn deaths: Experts

China's abrupt end to its zero-COVID policy has raised concerns of widespread infections among a vulnerable, undervaccinated population with little natural immunity that would overload the health system and result in up to 2 million deaths, or more, various research groups are reporting.
 

New analyses by various modelling groups predict the reopening could result in as many as 2.1 million deaths.
 

As of Monday, China has officially reported 5,242 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, a tiny fraction of its 1.4 billion population.
 

Here are some of the estimates:
 

More than 2 million

Zhou Jiatong, head of the Center for