Half a million coronavirus infections are recorded daily in the Chinese city of Qingdao, according to a Chinese official in a rare admission that official statistics do not reflect the actual scale of the new spread of the pandemic.

Due to increasing public dissatisfaction, China abandoned the core pillars of the "Zero Covid" policy earlier this month to contain the pandemic, canceling lockdown measures, testing, quarantine, and travel restrictions that all impact the Chinese economy.

Since then, the pandemic has spread in China and a large portion of the population has been left to manage on their own while markets face shortages of fever-reducing medicines and self-tests due to rising demand.

Cities across China are also struggling to curb the rising infections that have emptied pharmacy shelves and filled hospital rooms as well as crematoriums.

But the cancellation of mandatory testing has made it almost impossible to estimate the number of infections, while authorities have changed their method of counting deaths. The death toll now only includes people who died directly from respiratory failure related to Covid-19.

Experts see this step as aimed at reducing the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus.

In Qingdao in the east of the country, one of the media outlets run by the ruling Communist Party reported on Friday that the city’s health director said the city located in the east is witnessing "between 490,000 and 530,000" new Covid cases daily.

Also, Bo Tao, whose statements were published in the article, said the coastal city with a population of about ten million is witnessing a "rapid spread phase before approaching the peak." The same official added that the infection rate is expected to accelerate by another 10 percent over the weekend.

The Chinese Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that 4,103 new infections were recorded on Friday nationwide but there were no deaths.

The Chinese government imposes strict media restrictions, with heavy internet censorship to remove any politically sensitive content.

Most state media have downplayed the severity of the new Covid wave. Instead, they described the change in the "Zero Covid" policy as logical and deliberate.

Media outlets talked about drug shortages and pressure on hospitals, but estimates related to the actual number of infections remain rare.

Meanwhile, the Jiangxi provincial government on social media on Friday predicted that eighty percent of its population — about 36 million people — would be infected with the virus by March.

It added that more than 18,000 Covid patients were admitted to major hospitals in the province in the last two weeks until Thursday, including about 500 serious cases but no deaths were reported.