China announces 80% drop in daily deaths

In China, the number of daily deaths linked to Covid-19 has fallen by almost 80% since the beginning of January, according to the authorities, the sign that the last wave of contaminations which hit the country since December 2022 would start to start. subside. Analysts, however, believe that Beijing gives only part of the human toll of the epidemic, given the narrow criteria used to attribute a death to Covid-19 and official estimates that whole sections of the population have been infected.

Chinese hospitals recorded 896 deaths from the new coronavirus on Monday, January 23, a 79% drop from January 4, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement released on Wednesday. The number of serious cases in hospitals also fell by 72%, from 128,000 on Jan. 5 to 36,000 on Monday, according to the CDC.

This decline in Covid-19 deaths comes after the peak of the epidemic wave was reached in late December and early January, local governments and media reported. But authorities later warned of a new spike in infections after the Lunar New Year, leading to mass movements of people who could spread the virus.

Since Beijing abruptly abandoned its zero Covid policy last month, a wave of Covid-19 has swept the country. Last week, the CDC said nearly 13,000 people died of Covid-19 between January 13 and January 19, adding to the previously reported figure of around 60,000 people who succumbed to the virus in hospitals in a little over a month.