China has recorded around 60,000 deaths related to Covid-19 in just over a month, the communist regime said on Saturday (14). This is the first officially published large death toll since last month, when the country lifted its Covid-zero policy.
According to the National Health Commission, 59,938 people died between December 8 and January 12. Of these, 5,503 would have died from respiratory failure provided by the coronavirus and 54,435 from illnesses combined with Covid. More than 90% of the victims were aged over 65 and most already suffered from underlying illnesses – the average age of those killed is 80.3 years.
The number released this Saturday differs from those published recently by the regime. Since December, authorities have stopped announcing the numbers of infected and dead on a daily basis and, when they communicate, the deaths never exceed five. The data, incidentally, were seen by the international community as inconsistent, since in the same period images showed busy funeral homes and body bags leaving crowded hospitals.
Also on Saturday, Jiao Yahui, an official with the National Health Commission, told reporters that emergency hospitalizations for COVID-19 have peaked in China and the number of patients hospitalized with the disease has been decreasing.
“Across the country, the number of fever clinic patients is on a downward trend, both in cities and rural areas,” he said. He added that the number of people infected with the disease has also been falling, as well as serious cases – the latter, however, remains high and affects mainly the elderly.
This week, by the way, a regime official discouraged the population from visiting elderly relatives during the Chinese New Year, which begins on the 22nd and runs until the 5th of February. “You have different ways of showing that you care about them. You don’t necessarily need to take the virus into your home,” said Guo Jianwen, a member of the Pandemic Prevention Council in the country, quoted by the newspaper on Thursday. british The Guardian.
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