Rural China races to boost medical facilities ahead of expected Covid surge

Poorly resourced regional hospitals brace for flood of cases during upcoming lunar new year holiday as infections soar

China's sprawling and thinly resourced countryside was racing to beef up its medical facilities amid a surging Covid-19 wave as hundreds of millions of migrant factory workers prepare to return to their families for the lunar new year.

Each year, hundreds of millions of people, mostly working in factories near the southern and eastern coasts, return to the countryside for the lunar new year festivities, due to start on 22 January next year.