China

Deaths are estimated to peak 10 days later at approximately 25,000 a day, by that stage a total of 584,000 since the virus began surging across the country in December. "We predict 1.7 million deaths across China by the end of April 2023," the firm said. Airfinity's model is based on data from China's regional provinces, before changes to reporting infections were implemented, combined with case growth rates from other former Covid-zero countries when they lifted restrictions such as Hong Kong and Japan.

Italy on Wednesday brought back mandatory coronavirus tests for all airline travellers arriving from China, following reports of rising infection rates in the world's most populous country, The Guardian reported. More than 50 per cent of people screened upon arrival at Milan's Malpensa airport in recent days tested positive for the virus, prompting the Lombardy region to require a mandatory negative test result before entry from China, the report said. However, on Thursday, Italy's far-right premier, Giorgia Meloni, said no new concerning Covid-19 mutations had been found among those entering the country so far, with about half the samples sequenced.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal in 2019, he pledged that the 170 km railway route would boost landlocked Nepal's economy by improving trade and transport connectivity with China, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. There have been speculations that the railway could also be extended from Kathmandu to the Nepalese tourist hub of Pokhara and southern city of Lumbini, near the Indian border, the report said.

Amid a ceremony held on Wednesday, officials from the Department of Commerce of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China announced that the Rasuwagadhi- Kerung-Jilong border port resumed its operation for two-way trade. Following the ceremony, six cargo trucks carrying Nepal goods left Rasuwagadhi for Kerung town of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.

Descriptions of protest activity listed among the "alarms" include "gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places", "unlawful assembly, procession, demonstration" and threats to "petition", The Guardian reported. These activities are listed alongside offences such as "gambling" or disruptive events such as "fire hazard" in technical documents available on Hikvision's website and flagged to The Guardian by surveillance research firm IPVM, or Internet Protocol Video Market.

Omar Huseyin, 55, was the former hatip, or preacher, at the Qarayulghun Mosque in Korla, known as Ku'erle in Chinese and the second-largest city in Xinjiang. Authorities apprehended him in September 2017 amid a widespread crackdown on Islamic clergy and other prominent Uyghurs, for travelling to the holy city Mecca in 2015, RFA reported.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Health that from 12.01 a.m. on January 5, 2023, all passengers travelling from China, Hong Kong and Macau would need a negative Covid test to enter the country in order to "slow the spread" of the virus, reports the BBC. The tests can be either an RT-PCR or an antigen self-test administered through a telehealth service.

The study challenges previous assumptions that viruses usually evolve to become less dangerous, South China Morning Post reported. New research on the Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus has suggested the pathogen could be changing how it attacks the human body - shifting from infecting respiratory systems to increasingly targeting the brain.

Mortuaries and funeral homes in Beijing have been overwhelmed in recent days with weeks-long backlog of bodies awaiting cremation, RFA reported. There was anecdotal evidence on Tuesday that a similar bottleneck is occurring across the country, the report said.

The decision on Monday to drop quarantine for overseas visitors from January 8 has prompted concerns about the potential for new variants beyond China's borders, The Guardian reported.