According to estimates from the government's main health authority, about 37 million people in china may have contracted Covid-19 on a single day this week, making the country's outbreak by far the greatest in the world, according to Bloomberg. According to minutes from an internal meeting of China's National health Commission conducted on Wednesday, which were validated by officials involved in the discussions, as many as 248 million people, or nearly 18% of the population, possibly caught the virus in the first 20 days of December. If true, the infection rate would be far higher than the previous daily record of 4 million, which was established in january 2022, according to Bloomberg.

Despite a significant Covid rise that could be as large as a million instances per day, Fortune claimed that Chinese officials and businesses are allowing those who tested positive for Covid to return to work in an effort to keep the economy functioning. Over the weekend, authorities in the province of Zhejiang said that anyone who test positive for Covid might still go to work as long as they displayed no symptoms. Then on Monday, Chongqing, one of the biggest cities in china and a significant centre for manufacturing, took things a step further by permitting people with minor symptoms to return to work without being tested.

Covid-positive patients in home isolation were told a day later by beijing city officials that they may go back to work without having to get tested as long as they did not have a fever. Before, leaving home isolation needed a negative test, according to Fortune. Chinese government directives allowing employees to report to work while ill mark a significant shift from a few weeks ago, when beijing was still committed to a strict strategy of lockdowns and widespread testing to entirely eliminate Covid epidemics. Officials are now attempting to reassure common Chinese who are anxious about a sudden rise in cases as china quickly relaxes its Covid regulations.