Monitoring Desk
BEIJING: China on Saturday reported around 60,000 deaths in people who had Covid-19 since early December following complaints the government failed to release data about the status of the pandemic.
The death toll included 5,503 fatalities due to respiratory failure caused by coronavirus and 54,435 deaths from other diseases combined with Covid-19.
The National Health Commission (NHC) said those deaths occurred in hospitals, which opened the possibility that more people might have died at home.
Reports of increase in death toll
The report predicts China’s official Covid-19 death toll would increase to nearly 10,775. The official toll stood at 5,272 on January 8, 2023.
The Chinese government stopped releasing data on Covid-19 infections and deaths in early December after abruptly lifting anti-virus restrictions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and other governments appealed to China for more information amid an infection surge.
