Passengers laden with luggage flocked to rail stations and airports in China’s megacities on Monday, heading to their hometowns for Lunar New Year holidays that health experts fear could intensify a raging COVID-19 outbreak in areas less-equipped to handle it. After three years of strict anti-virus controls, China abruptly abandoned its "zero COVID" policy in early December, letting the virus run freely through its 1.4 billion population.