‘Don’t go home’: Health officials urge China’s billions of travelers to avoid visiting their elderly parents during Chinese New Year Ahead of the 2023 Chinese New Year holiday, which starts Jan. 21 and ends Jan. 27, China’s health officials are asking people to stay put and protect elderly family members rather than travel and risk exacerbating China’s ongoing COVID outbreak.Guo Jianwen, a member of China’s pandemic prevention team, suggested on Thursday that if Chinese people were worried about infecting their elderly relatives, “don’t go home to visit them.” He said, “You have all kinds of ways to show you care for them; you don’t necessarily need to bring the virus to their home.” The question of whether to return home for Chinese New Year was a popular topic on Chinese social media, with Reuters reporting the question was the most-read item on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform, on Thursday.China’s official case and death numbers—503,302 and 5,272, respectively—under-represent the scope of the outbreak since Beijing changed how it records COVID cases and deaths last month.Beijing on Sunday ordered villages to stockpile at least two weeks’ worth of medicine, and set up teams of volunteer drivers to carry people to treatment centers, according to state-run paper Global Times.This story was originally featured on Fortune.com More from Fortune: Air India slammed for ‘systemic failure’ after unruly male passenger flying business class urinated on a woman traveling from New York Meghan Markle’s real sin that the British public can’t forgive–and Americans can’t understand ‘It just doesn’t work.’ The world’s best restaurant is shutting down as its owner calls the modern fine dining model ‘unsustainable’ Bob Iger just put his foot down and told Disney employees to come back into the office Air India slammed for ‘systemic failure’ after unruly male passenger flying business class urinated on a woman traveling from New York Meghan Markle’s real sin that the British public can’t forgive–and Americans can’t understand ‘It just doesn’t work.’ The world’s best restaurant is shutting down as its owner calls the modern fine dining model ‘unsustainable’ Bob Iger just put his foot down and told Disney employees to come back into the office"