China’s Zhejiang Has 1 Mln Daily COVID Cases, Expected to Double 

A man wearing a protective mask holds a picture frame of a loved one outside a funeral home, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue, in Shanghai, China, December 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A man wearing a protective mask holds a picture frame of a loved one outside a funeral home, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue, in Shanghai, China, December 23, 2022. (Reuters)
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China’s Zhejiang Has 1 Mln Daily COVID Cases, Expected to Double 

A man wearing a protective mask holds a picture frame of a loved one outside a funeral home, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue, in Shanghai, China, December 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A man wearing a protective mask holds a picture frame of a loved one outside a funeral home, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue, in Shanghai, China, December 23, 2022. (Reuters)

China's Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily COVID-19 infections, a number expected to double in the days ahead, the provincial government said on Sunday. 

Despite a record surge of cases nationwide, China reported no COVID deaths on the mainland for the five days through Saturday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday. 

Citizens and experts have called for more accurate data as infections surged after Beijing made sweeping changes to a zero-COVID policy that had put hundreds of millions of its citizens under relentless lockdowns and battered the world's second-largest economy. 

Nationwide figures from China had become incomplete as the National Health Commission stopped reporting asymptomatic infections, making it harder to track cases. On Sunday the commission stopped reporting daily figures, which the China CDC then published. 

Zhejiang is among the few areas to estimate their recent spikes in infections including asymptomatic cases. 

"The infection peak is estimated to arrive earlier in Zhejiang and to enter a period of elevated level around New Year's Day, during which the daily new infection number will be up to two million," the Zhejiang government said in a statement. 

Zhejiang, with a population of 65.4 million, said that among the 13,583 infections being treated in the province's hospitals, one patient had severe symptoms caused by COVID, while 242 infections of severe and critical conditions were caused by underlying diseases. 

China narrowed its definition for reporting COVID deaths, counting only those from COVID-caused pneumonia or respiratory failure, raising eyebrows among world health experts. 

The World Health Organization has received no data from China on new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing eased its restrictions. The organization says the data gap might be due to the authorities struggling to tally cases in the world's most populous country. 

‘Most dangerous weeks’ 

"China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic," said a research note from Capital Economics. "The authorities are making almost no efforts now to slow the spread of infections and, with the migration ahead of Lunar New Year getting started, any parts of the country not currently in a major COVID wave will be soon." 

The cities of Qingdao and Dongguan have each estimated tens of thousands of daily COVID infections recently, much higher than the national daily toll without asymptomatic cases. 

The country's healthcare system has been under enormous strain, with staff being asked to work while sick and even retired medical workers in rural communities being rehired to help grass-root efforts, according to state media. 

Bolstering the urgency is the approach of the Lunar New Year in January, when huge numbers of people return home. 

Visits to Zhejiang fever clinics hit 408,400 a day - 14 times normal levels - in the past week, a Zhejiang official told a news conference. 

Daily requests to the emergency center in Zhejiang's capital, Hangzhou, have recently more than tripled on average from last year's level, state television reported on Sunday, citing a Hangzhou health official. 

The eastern city of Suzhou said late on Saturday its emergency line received a record 7,233 calls on Thursday. 



Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack that killed three people in Ukraine's Dnipro and the nearby region on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow's troops launched 235 drones and 27 missiles, damaging residential and commercial buildings and causing fires, the Ukrainian Air Force said. It said in a statement that 10 missiles and 25 attack drones hit nine sites. The rest of the drones and missiles were brought down, the Air Force said.

"A terrible night. A massive combined attack on the region," Serhiy Lysak, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said on the Telegram app.

He said three people were killed in the attacks and six others wounded in the city of Dnipro and the nearby region.

Lysak posted pictures showing firefighters battling fires, a residential building with smashed windows, and charred cars.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed retaliatory strikes.

"Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, and Russian airports should feel that Russia’s own war is now hitting them back with real consequences," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.

Ukraine's attacks on Russia have heated up in recent months, with Moscow and Kyiv exchanging swarms of drones and fierce fighting raging along more than 1,000 kilometers of the frontline.