Wang Liping, a researcher for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention speaks during a press briefing by the National Health Commission as concerns surfaced in recent days over a surge in HMPV infections in northern China after images circulated online of hospitals overrun with masked patients, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Wang Liping, second left, a researcher for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention speaks during a press briefing by the National Health Commission as concerns surfaced in recent days over a surge in HMPV infections in northern China after images circulated online of hospitals overrun with masked patients, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A woman wearing a face mask tends to a child at a corridor crowded with parents at a pediatric hospital in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Jan. 7, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)

Gao Xinqiang, deputy director of the Department of Medical Emergency Response of the health commission, left, speaks to reporters during a press briefing by the National Health Commission as concerns surfaced in recent days over a surge in human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infections in northern China after images circulated online of hospitals overrun with masked patients, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Gao Xinqiang, deputy director of the Department of Medical Emergency Response of the health commission, right, speaks next to Wang Liping, researcher for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention during a press briefing by the National Health Commission as concerns surfaced in recent days over a surge in human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infections in northern China after images circulated online of hospitals overrun with masked patients, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Journalists wearing face masks film a speech of Wang Liping, a researcher for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention during a press briefing by the National Health Commission in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Wang Liping, left, researcher for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention speaks during a press briefing by the National Health Commission as concerns surfaced in recent days over a surge in human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infections in northern China after images circulated online of hospitals overrun with masked patients, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A woman wearing a face mask carries a child in her arms as she walks through a corridor crowded with patients at a pediatric hospital in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Jan. 7, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)

Journalists wearing face masks chat during a press briefing by the National Health Commission in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)