shanghai china on saturday marked the first day of chun yun the 40day period of lunar new year travel known prepandemic as the worlds largest annual migration of people bracing for a huge increase in travellers and the spread of covid19 infectionsthis lunar new year public holiday which officially runs from january 21 will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictionsover the last month china has seen the dramatic dismantling of its zerocovid regime following historic protests against a policy that included frequent testing restricted movement mass lockdowns and heavy damage to the worlds no2 economyinvestors are hoping that the reopening will eventually reinvigorate a 17trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in nearly half a centurybut the abrupt changes have exposed many of chinas 14 billion population to the virus for the first time triggering a wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals emptying pharmacy shelves of medicines and causing long lines to form at crematoriumsthe ministry of transport said on friday that it expects more than 2 billion passengers to take trips over the next 40 days an increase of 995 yearonyear and reaching 703 of trip numbers in 2019there was mixed reaction online to that news with some comments hailing the freedom to return to hometowns and celebrate the lunar new year with family for the first time in yearsmany others however said they would not travel this year with worry of infecting elderly relatives a common themei dare not go back to my hometown for fear of bringing the poison back said one such comment on the twitterlike weibothere are widespread concerns that the great migration of workers in cities to their hometowns will cause a surge in infections in smaller towns and rural areas that are less wellequipped with icu beds and ventilators to deal with themauthorities say they are boosting grassroots medical services opening more rural fever clinics and instituting a green channel for high risk patients especially elderly people with underlying health conditions to be transferred from villages directly to higher level hospitalschinas rural areas are wide the population is large and the per capita medical resources are relatively insufficient national health commission spokesman mi feng said on saturdayits necessary to provide convenient services accelerate vaccination for the elderly in rural areas and the construction of grassroots lines of defenseinfection peak reachedsome analysts are now saying the current wave of infections may have already peakedernan cui an analyst at gavekal dragonomics in beijing cited several online surveys as indicating that rural areas were already more widely exposed to covid infections than initially thought with an infection peak already reached in most regions noting there was not much difference between urban and rural areason sunday china will reopen its border with hong kong and will also end a requirement for travellers coming from abroad to quarantine that effectively opens the door for many chinese to travel abroad for the first time since borders slammed shut nearly three years ago without fear of