(Recasts with Xi comments)
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President Xi says worried about rural areas
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Half a million people now crossing China's borders per day
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China open to world - state leader tells World Economic Forum
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Some mourn relatives lost to COVID
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Medical workers rush to vaccinate elderly
By Bernard Orr
BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) -
President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday he was particularly concerned about China's COVID-19 wave spreading to rural areas with poor medical facilities but he urged perseverance in stressful times, saying "light is ahead".
His comments came as millions of urban workers were travelling back to their home towns and reunite with families for the Lunar New Year (LNY) 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 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.
Xi had championed a strict zero-COVID strategy of lockdowns and other curbs on movement, which China imposed for three years at a high economic and psychological cost, before abruptly ditching it in early December soon after widespread protests.
Unleashed among the country's 1.4 billion people, the virus has disrupted factory output and consumption in the past two months, but some analysts say the deeper-than-expected shock may be followed by a faster-than-predicted recovery.
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 in China.
Prolonged sluggishness could worsen the policy challenges facing Xi, who must pacify a pessimistic younger generation who led the November protests against COVID curbs.
While some analysts expect that recovery to be slow and patchy, China's Vice-Premier Liu He declared to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Tuesday that China was open to the world after three years of isolation.
National Immigration Administration officials said that, on average, half a million people had moved in or out of China each day since its borders reopened on Jan. 8, state media reported. That is expected to rise to 600,000 a day once the holiday formally starts on Saturday.
But as workers flood out of megacities such as Shanghai, where officials say the virus has peaked, many are heading to towns and villages where unvaccinated elderly have yet to be exposed to COVID and health care systems are less equipped.