President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday he was concerned about the mainland's Covid-19 wave spreading to rural areas with poor medical facilities but he urged perseverance in stressful times, saying the "light is ahead".

His comments came as millions of urban workers were travelling back to their hometowns and reuniting with families for the Lunar New Year holidays, known before Covid as the greatest annual migration of people.

"China's Covid prevention and control is still in a time of stress, but the light is ahead, persistence is victory," Xi said in his LNY greetings message carried by broadcaster CCTV.

"I am most worried about the rural areas and farmers. Medical facilities are relatively weak in rural areas, thus prevention is difficult and the task is arduous," Xi said, adding that the elderly were a top priority.

Economists are scrutinising the holiday season for glimmers of rebounding consumption across the world's second largest economy after new GDP data on Tuesday confirmed a sharp economic slowdown on the mainland.

While some analysts expect that recovery will be slow and patchy, Vice-Premier Liu He declared to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Tuesday that China was open to the world.

National Immigration Administration officials said that, on average, half a million people had moved in or out of the mainland each day since its borders reopened on January 8, state media reported. That is expected to rise to 600,000 a day once the holiday formally starts on Saturday.

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday extended Spring Festival greetings to members of the public, speaking with medical workers in a hospital, senior citizens at a welfare home, workers at an outlying oilfield, as well as travellers and staff at a high-speed railway station via video link.

The president wished Chinese people of all ethnic groups healthy and happy lives in the Year of the Rabbit. (Reuters/Xinhua)
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Last updated: 2023-01-18 HKT 21:45