Henan is the   third most populous province in China.

Provincial official Kan Quancheng revealed the figure - amounting to about 88.5 million people - at a press conference, reports BBC.

China has been in the news in recent times as the country is witnessing a spike in infection.

The spike in COVID-19 infection was witnessed ever since the country abandoned zero-Covid policies in December.

Kan did not specify a timeline for when all the infections happened - but as China's previous zero-Covid policy kept cases to a minimum, it's likely the vast majority of Henan's infections occurred in the past few weeks, reports BBC.

He said visits to fever clinics in Henan province peaked on 19 December "after which it showed a continuous downward trend".