China now in temporary immune stage after infection peak: medical expert

China is now in a temporary immune stage after going through the first infection peak and people will have immunity protection for three to six months if the COVID-19 virus doesn't have a clear mutation, said a Chinese medical expert.

Although China has just gone through an infection peak, the COVID-19 pandemic has not gone away, said Li Tongzeng, chief physician with the respiratory and infectious diseases department at Beijing You'an Hospital, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

"We must keep monitoring the pandemic as we currently have no idea about when the next wave will come and to what extent," said Li.

According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been more than 83,000 COVID-19 related deaths in hospitals in the Chinese mainland from December 8 to February 9, but the number of deaths and positive cases has been declining this year.

As for why a worrying second infection peak during the Spring Festival holidays didn't come, Li said that the antibody level was very high among the Chinese public as over 80 percent of people in most regions have got infected from December 2022 to early January.

"People's immunity is strong enough to defeat the virus, which hasn't had much variation," Li said.

The Chinese CDC said the current major prevailing strains in China are BA.5.2.48 and BF.7.14. Li said if the virus doesn't have an obvious mutation, its morbidity rate will decline and there will be a weaker impact on the public's health, which means the pandemic situation in China could become more stable.

Chinese health officials and experts said on Thursday that the nationwide COVID-19 situation has generally become stable. Although a new wave of mass infections is unlikely to occur in the coming months, schools and rural areas will be the next priority for epidemic control.

There is only a "trifling possibility" that a new wave of COVID-19 epidemic infections will emerge in the coming months in China, as the population's immune protection remains at a high level, Chinese CDC chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou said at a press conference on February 10.