In the month since the country abandoned its tight “zero Covid” policy, China said on Saturday that it had reported about 60,000 fatalities connected to the coronavirus, accelerating an outbreak that is thought to have infected millions of people. The admission marked a significant increase in the official death toll and was the first time China had offered a measure of the Covid wave that is currently sweeping the nation.
China records 60,000 fatalities, linked to Coronavirus in the month since country lifted Zero Covid Policy
Up until this past Saturday, China had only recorded 5,241 Covid fatalities overall since the pandemic started in the city of Wuhan in late 2019. That measurement was specifically limited to Covid-related respiratory failure or pneumonia mortality. The updated number made public on Saturday included people who also have other underlying diseases in addition to Covid.
China faces mounting criticism from other countries and from WHO
China has come under increasing fire from other nations and the World Health Organization for failing to provide accurate information about the scope of its Covid outbreak and the number of fatalities nationwide despite frequent images of hospitals, mortuaries, and funeral homes being overflowing in recent weeks.
Prior to the revelation, China stated that since Dec. 7, the day it discontinued its “zero Covid” policy, just 37 individuals had passed away from the disease.
After China reopened its borders last Sunday, numerous nations, notably Japan and South Korea, imposed travel restrictions on Chinese visitors due to the lack of transparency. Experts also cautioned against downplaying the severity of the outbreak since it would encourage residents of the nation to adopt fewer safety measures.
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China’s National Health Commission reveals 59,938 deaths
Jiao Yahui, a representative of China’s National Health Commission, reported the number of Covid-related deaths in the country from December 8 to January 12 at a news conference in Beijing. This number included 5,503 persons who passed away from respiratory failure brought on directly by Covid. According to Jiao, a further 54,435 fatalities were related to further underlying diseases.
Jiao claimed that due to the need for a thorough investigation of hospital reports, China was unable to provide the statistics on Covid-related deaths earlier. Further she stated that it took a while for them to assemble a team of professionals to perform an orderly analysis on the death instances.
It is unclear from the new data whether China has modified how it reports Covid fatalities to include those who had preexisting illnesses whose symptoms were exacerbated by the virus. China’s official death toll, according to officials, only includes people who passed away from pneumonia or respiratory failure brought on by Covid. Covid fatalities are counted more generally in other nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Although it was too soon to say whether China had altered course, experts applauded the initiative to disclose more information.
Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, stated, “We cannot make a judgement at this time, but it is definitely more reliable than the earlier data indicating there were only a few deaths. “I’m hoping that now the government will be more open.”
For a very long period, China has only narrowly counted infectious disease deaths, such as SARS in 2003 and seasonal flu. However, the authorities made an exception and utilised a narrower definition to justify the prolonged imprisonment of inhabitants during the Shanghai lockdown in the spring of 2022. One heart attack was blamed for the 588 Covid deaths the Shanghai municipal government reported at the time, while the other 588 deaths were attributed to “underlying disorders” or “tumours.” The National Health Commission has never removed those deaths from the national toll of Covid deaths, notwithstanding this contradiction.
China’s death toll higher than revealed
According to Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, the true death toll in China was very certainly higher than that in all other nations. He claimed that China might have produced more accurate information on death and infection rates if it had more rigorously screened hospital patients.
The fact that China has such a large testing capacity but hasn’t been using it to confirm Covid in hospitalised patients is one thing that Mr. Cowling found a little odd.
China’s older population hit hard by outbreak: many did not receive vaccine doses
The National Health Commission’s results validated long-held concerns that an outbreak would severely affect China’s elderly population because so many did not receive enough vaccinations. 56.5 percent of the deaths—or little under 60,000—involved people who were at least 80 years old.
Covid death: politically sensitive issue in China
Because China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, had supported a strategy of strict lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing to attempt to contain the virus, covid deaths are a particularly sensitive political problem in the country. After the technique was successful in stifling transmission early in the pandemic, Mr. Xi boasted that other nations could follow it.
But as the extremely contagious Omicron form spread last year, that approach was no longer workable. Protests broke out in November as more individuals became weary of the Covid limitations and cases rapidly increased across the nation. China subsequently quickly changed its “zero Covid” policy without giving the nation a chance to store up on medication, putting additional strain on an already fragile economy.
The coronavirus wave is currently affecting the nation’s big cities, according to officials, but worries are increasing about how it may affect the nation’s rural areas, which have a far worse healthcare system than China’s cities.
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