Covid cases in China touch 900 million - study

Some 900 million people in China have been infected with the coronavirus as of 11 January, according to a study by Peking University.

The report estimates that 64 per cent of the country's population has the virus, BBC reports.

It ranks Gansu province, where 91 per cent of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan (84 per cent) and Qinghai (80 per cent).

A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned that cases will surge in rural China over the lunar new year.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese are travelling to their hometowns - many for the first time since the pandemic began - ahead of the lunar new year on 23 January.

But hospitals in big cities - where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible - have become crowded with Covid patients as the virus has spread through the country.