As the second wave of COVID-19 peaks in June, is a second COVID-19 pandemic inevitable?

After the May Day holiday, there was a lot of discussion on social media about the second infection. A total of 18,081 cases of 16 notifiable infectious diseases were reported in the city during the 19th week (May 8-14), according to data released by Beijing Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 has returned to the top of the list of notifiable infectious diseases for three consecutive weeks, surpassing influenza.

On the morning of May 22, Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that judging from various materials, there was a small peak of novel coronavirus infections in late April and early May, "which we expected", at the biomedicine and Health sub-forum of the 2023 Greater Bay Area Science Forum.

Zhong said projections based on the seirs model show that the second wave of COVID-19 in 2023 will peak at the end of June, with about 65 million infections per week. One Omicron infection can infect more than 30 people, he said. "Our strategy has changed from preventing infection to preventing severe illness, because infection is very difficult to prevent."

But we should always wear masks to reduce the risk of infection!