Beijing: A study by Peking University has revealed that some 900 million people in China have been infected with the coronavirus as of 11 January, media reports said.

The report estimates that 64% of the country's population has the virus, BBC reports.

It ranks Gansu province, where 91% of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan, (84%) and and Qinghai (80%).

A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned to BBC that cases will surge in rural China on the lunar new year.

The peak of China's Covid wave is expected to last two to three months, Zeng Guang, ex-head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control told BBC.

Ahead of the lunar new year on Jan 23, several people are travelling across the country.

China is witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases ever since it removed Zero COVID movement.

But hospitals in big cities - where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible - have become crowded with Covid patients as the virus has spread through the country, reports BBC.

Although virus sequencing is vital to detect and track new variants in the COVID-19 pandemic, sharing this information must be stepped up globally, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday in Geneva.

“Since the peak of the Omicron wave, the number of sequences being shared has dropped by more than 90 per cent, and the number of countries sharing sequences has fallen by a third,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking during his latest media briefing.  

The WHO chief recalled that the first sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was shared with the world three years ago, which enabled the development of tests and vaccines against the disease.

“We urge all countries now experiencing intense transmission to increase sequencing, and to share those sequences,” he said.