Monitoring Desk
BEIJING: China reported around 13,000 Covid deaths in the country’s hospitals between 13-19 January
The surge in deaths was reported after a country’s top health official said that a large portion of the population has already contracted the coronavirus.
“Nearly 60,000 people died in hospitals as of 12 January”
China last week said nearly 60,000 people had died due to Covid in the hospitals as of 12 January but amid widespread skepticism over the official data since Beijing abruptly lifted anti-virus controls in December.
China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a statement Saturday said that 681 hospitalized patients died of respiratory failure caused by coronavirus infections, while 11,977 died of other diseases combined with the infection over the period. The figure do not include those who died of the virus at home.
An independent forecasting firm, Airfinity has estimated daily Covid-related deaths in the country will touch around 36,000 over the Lunar New Year holiday. It also estimated that more than 600,000 people have died of the disease since China abandoned the zero-Covid policy in the last month of 2022.
Thousands of people have traveled across the country in recent days for the long-awaited reunions with families in the biggest holiday in the lunar calendar that fell on Sunday (today). The activity also raised fears of fresh outbreaks.
A top health official said China is not at risk of experiencing a second wave of covid infections in the next 2-3 months after millions return to the villages to mark the Lunar New Year as nearly 80 percent of the population has already been infected by the coronavirus.
Transport authorities in China have predicted that more than 2bn trips will be made in between January and February in one of the world’s largest mass movements of people.
