The country has been facing a resumption of the epidemic for several weeks, after having lifted part of the health restrictions which had held the country in a vice since 2020.
China announced this Saturday January 14 at least 60,000 deaths in hospitals in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, since the lifting of health restrictions in the country a month ago. “A total of 59,938 deaths were recorded between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023“, told the press an official of the health authorities, Jiao Yahui. This report does not take into account deaths recorded outside medical facilities. Among these deaths, 5,503 were caused directly by respiratory failure linked to Covid-19, said this official. By way of comparison, France recorded nearly 3,000 Covid deaths in December 2022.
In early December, after three years of some of the most draconian health restrictions in the world, China abruptly lifted most of its measures against Covid, thus triggering a major epidemic wave, undermining the Chinese health system. However, while the queues are getting longer in front of funeral homes, especially that of the capital, the Chinese authorities are trying to minimize the number of dead. According to the British medical analysis company, Airfinity, China is actually registering 20,000 deaths a day. It should reach 25,000 daily deaths at the end of January, after the passage of the epidemic peak, estimated on January 13.
Beijing reviewed its methodology for accounting for Covid deaths in December. Only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to the coronavirus are now included in the statistics. This controversial change in methodology means that a large number of deaths are no longer listed as being due to Covid. The World Health Organization (WHO) last week criticized this new Chinese definition of a Covid death, deeming it “too narrow“.
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