Chinese National Health Commission’s medical affairs department’s director Jiao Yahui said that around 60,000 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in China between December 8 and January 12.
With this, the country is releasing the death toll in China for the first time since the government scrapped the strict zero-Covid policy, in a sudden move, last month.
Yahui said that 5,503 deaths have occurred in China because of respiratory failure which was triggered by infection of COVID19.
Furthermore, 54,435 deaths were recorded of people who were suffering from COVID19 but had underlying health issues like cardiovascular diseases and cancer, informed the director.
The government’s official death count will include only deaths that have occurred without any underlying issues because of China’s new and narrow definition of COVID19 related deaths, which was adopted earlier.
The National Health Commission stated the record is about the deaths that took place in hospitals, which further opens the chances of more people dying due to COVID19 in their homes.
According to the data reflected in the report, China’s official death toll of COVID19, which stood at 5,272 on January 8, would double to 10,775.
As per the report of South China Morning Post, the average age of Covid-19 fatalities was 80.3, and among those, 90% were aged 65 or above.
The report comes amid questions being raised over China’s lack of transparency in the wake of the current Covid-19 outbreak as reports emerged of funeral homes and hospitals being overwhelmed across the country.
Restrictions have been imposed by various countries on people travelling from China as appeals have been made that the government share more data with other countries across the world.
However, the foreign ministry of China stated that the countries should also pressurise the United States to share its data about the spread of the XBB.1.5 subvariant.
