Bodies have been seen piling up in hospitals and crematoriums in China after the country recently loosened its extreme coronavirus containment policy.
Some experts have claimed the government may be covering up the country's full story of Covid-related deaths.
Just two deaths from the virus were reported by Chinese authorities on Monday - but footage appears to show a hospital’s corridors flooded with dead bodies on stretchers and patients being packed into wards.
As Beijing grapples with the latest outbreak, accounts from strained hospitals and crematoriums suggest the true toll is not being reflected by the figures.
Official case numbers are widely deemed unreliable following an end to mandatory mass testing.
A viral tweet by epidemiologist Dr Eric Feigl-Ding shows a hospital ward "completely overwhelmed" with ill patients, which also claims up to 10 per cent of the Earth's population will be infected in the next 90 days.
"Deaths likely in the millions - plural," the expert added.
Hoe Nam Leong, a Singapore-based infectious diseases expert, argued that “numbers don’t tell the full story”, adding that he expects the real number of deaths to be much higher.
Mr Leong added that some hospitals were too full to admit new patients, while health workers may be downplaying Covid as a cause of death.
He said: “Individuals may die of a heart attack from the stress of infection. The main cause of death would be a heart attack, but the underlying cause is Covid.”
The country continues to ease its zero-Covid policy, with reports that some people are allowed to go into work even when visibly ill.
The southern city of Chongqing - with a population of 32 million people - became one of the first parts of China to let people attend work even “when mildly symptomatic”, the Chongqing Daily newspaper reported on Monday.
The Chongqing notice was issued on Sunday, urging residents not to take tests ”unnecessarily” or require people to show a negative result, with exceptions for care homes, schools and prisons.
Beijing authorities urged that people “resume normal life and production as soon as possible”, adding recovered patients would not need a test to enter public spaces.
Officials also encouraged residents to attend conferences and weddings.
It marks a dramatic U-turn in the country, where previously a single infection could send thousands of people into lockdown.
Local governments across the nation have encouraged people to isolate at home while recovering - a vast progression from its previous policy of forcing people into state quarantine facilities.
Many people remain determined to get out and about, with around 1,500 fans cramming into a sports bar in Shanghai for Sunday's World Cup Final.
