The new wave of cases of Covid-19 in China is causing growing concern about the spread of possible new variants, as modelling suggests the country is seeing more than 1 million infections per day.
China's health department called on provincial authorities to regularly analyse samples of the virus and report the results, to identify any new variants involved in the latest outbreak.
The department told provincial officials to select three hospitals in each of three cities to collect samples of 15 infections, 10 severe illnesses and all deaths each week.
The results are expected within a week, after scientists analyse the samples. Officials can then monitor "possible symptoms, transmission abilities and pathogenicity of new variants with potential biological changes" in real time, according to the director of the health department's virus institute, Xu Wenbo, according to Xinhua news agency.
Beijing has downplayed the scale and severity of the recent outbreak, leading to concern abroad.
China's health authorities have only reported a few thousand infections a day, while modelling by Airfinity, a London-based research institute, suggests that there are probably more than 1 million infections a day, and more than 5,000 deaths.
The wave is expected to peak in January and March, with up to 3.7 million and 4.2 million cases per day, respectively.
After almost three years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing, China suddenly eased its tough zero-Covid policy on December 7, justifying the move by saying cases involving the new Omicron variant are less severe.
However, the step was widely seen as acknowledging the fact that it was no longer possible to maintain the strict measures.
Ever since, the virus has been spreading rapidly and in many places, hospitals are full.
Modelling suggests hundreds of thousands of deaths are likely.
