China Reports 60K Covid Deaths... True or False?

Hospitals in China are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients

In a bid to silence other countries for criticising China for not sharing Covid-19 data on infections and deaths, it yesterday claimed that just under 60,000 deaths were recorded from December 8 to January 12, when the zero-Covid restrictions were lifted.

The authorities also claim fever clinic visits and hospitalisations have peaked.

It is the first time China has released a death toll since its abrupt pivot away from its punishing zero-Covid strategy. 

Jiao claims 60K have died from Covid-19

Jiao Yahui, director of the National Health Commission's medical affairs department, said medical institutes recorded 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by Covid-19 infection, and 54,435 deaths of people with Covid-19 who had underlying health conditions, such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases.

"The standard is basically in line with those adopted by the World Health Organisation and other major countries," she said.

The average age of those who died was 80.3, and 90 percent of the fatalities were people aged 65 and older.

While it's definitely more than the over 5,000 that China reported since the pandemic began in December 2019, but many infectious disease experts are still skeptical.

One of them is Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Huang skeptical of 60K number, believes higher

"The sharp revision is an official response to international criticism of the lack of transparency and accuracy in China's reporting of Covid-related data," he told CNN. 

"Given the still huge gap between the official count of Covid deaths and the international estimate, I don't think the revision will quell outside doubts on the government data."

In an interview with Reuters, Huang said it was unclear whether the new data accurately reflected the actual fatalities because doctors were discouraged from reporting Covid-related deaths, and the numbers only included deaths in hospitals.

"In the countryside, for example, many elderly people died at home but were not tested for Covid due to the lack of access to test kits or their unwillingness to get tested," he said.

And now the great migration is underway -- millions of people are on planes, trains and automobiles to get back to their hometowns for Spring Festival that starts on January 22. There are estimates that over 2 billion passenger trips will be made.

Travellers flood the Guangzhou train station

It is very possible that while traveling people will be infected with Covid-19 and spread the virus to their relatives. This could have an even more devastating effect, as those living in remote rural areas will be least likely to be vaccinated and if infected, will not have access to medicine and hospitals equipped to deal with respiratory illnesses.

For Jiao to claim the virus has already peaked is wishful thinking.