(Yicai Global) Jan.26 - The number of COVID-19 cases dropped significantly in China in the first month of 2023, according to data released yesterday by the country's disease control authority.

Many of the data metrics have dropped below pre-optimization levels, displaying a clear trend of recovery.

Daily visits to fever clinics reached 2.86 million on December 23 2022, then dropped by 97.8 percent to about 63,000 on January 23 2023, said a webpage posted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients across the Chinese mainland dropped by 84.8 percent to 248,000 on January 23 from 1.62 million on January 5. That of severe cases also dropped by 72 percent from 128,000 on January 5 to 36,000.

The number of daily deaths dropped by 79 percent from 4,273 on January 4 to 896 on January 23, the CDC data showed.

CDC said they had collected 10,165 virus samples from across the Chinese mainland since early December, over 70 percent of which belong to the Omicron BA.5.2 sub-variant.

Other sub-variants, like the BA.5.1, BA.2.76 and BN.1.3, each accounted for less than 0.4 percent.

The second most popular sub-variant is BF.7 with a share of more than 28 percent. Beijing and Tianjin are the only two provincial areas that saw BF.7 as the dominant sub-variant in this period.

Vaccination against COVID-19 also saw progress, as more than 3.4 billion doses have been taken across the Chinese mainland.

More than 90.5 percent of the Chinese population have been fully vaccinated, up from 90.1 percent in August 2022.