Towns across China scrambled to put in hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as the united states stated Beijing's wonder choice to allow the virus run unfastened become a situation for the arena.

China this month began dismantling its stringent "zero-COVID" regime of mass lockdowns after protests towards curbs that had largely kept the virus at bay for three years but at huge charges to society and the world's 2nd-largest economic system.

Now, as the virus sweeps through a country of 1.4 billion people who lack natural immunity having been shielded for so long, there is growing concern about possible deaths, virus mutations and the impact on the economy and trade.

"We recognise that any time the virus is spreading, that it is inside the wild, that it has the potential to mutate and to pose a risk to human beings everywhere," U.S. Nation branch spokesperson Ned rate said on Monday, adding that the virus outbreak in China become additionally a situation for global boom.

On Tuesday, Beijing reported five COVID-related deaths, following two on Monday, which were the first fatalities in weeks. China has reported only 5,242 COVID deaths since the pandemic began in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, a very low toll by global standards.

However, there are growing doubts that the statistics accurately reflect the full scope of a disease ravaging cities since China lifted restrictions, including most mandatory testing, on December 7.

Since then, some hospitals have been overwhelmed, pharmacies have been depleted of medications, and many people have gone into self-imposed lockdowns, putting a strain on delivery services.

"It's a bit of a burden to reopen suddenly when the supply of medications was not adequately prepared," said Zhang, a 31-year-old Beijing delivery worker who declined to give his full name. "However, I support the reopening."

According to some health experts, 60% of people in China - equivalent to 10% of the world's population - could become infected in the coming months, with more than 2 million dying.

Security guards patrolled the entrance to a designated COVID-19 crematorium in Beijing, where Reuters journalists saw a long line of hearses and workers in hazmat suits carrying the dead inside on Saturday. Reuters could not establish if the deaths were due to COVID.

In Beijing, which has emerged as the main infection hot spot, commuters, many coughing into their masks, were back on the trains to work and streets were coming back to life after being largely deserted last week.

Streets in Shanghai, where COVID transmission rates are catching up to those in Beijing, were less crowded, and subway trains were only half full.

In recent weeks, top health officials have softened their stance on the disease's threat, reversing previous messaging that the virus needed to be eradicated to save lives even as the rest of the world opened up.

They have also downplayed the possibility of the now-dominant Omicron strain becoming more virulent.

"The likelihood of a sudden large mutation... is very low," Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease specialist, said at a forum on Sunday, according to state media.

Nonetheless, there are growing indications that the virus is wreaking havoc on China's fragile health-care system.

Cities are stepping up efforts to expand intensive care units and other facilities for severe COVID cases, according to a report published on Monday by the state-run Global Times.

Authorities have also been racing to build so-called fever clinics, facilities where medical staff check patients' symptoms and administer medication. Clinics, which are frequently attached to hospitals, are common in mainland China and are intended to prevent the spread of contagious disease in hospitals.

In the last week, major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wenzhou announced the addition of hundreds of fever clinics, some of which are housed in converted sports facilities.

The virus is also wreaking havoc on China's economy, which is expected to grow by 3% this year, the slowest rate in nearly a half-century. Workers and truck drivers becoming ill are slowing output and disrupting logistics, according to economists.

A World Economics survey showed on Monday China's business confidence fell in December to its lowest since January 2013.

Weaker industrial activity in the world's top oil importer has limited crude price gains and pushed copper lower.

On Tuesday, China kept benchmark lending interest rates unchanged for the fourth month in a row.