China announced on Saturday at least 60,000 deaths in hospitals related to the Covid-19 pandemic since the lifting of health restrictions in the country a month ago.
China, criticized for his lack of transparency on the Covid-19 outbreakannounced at least 60,000 virus-related deaths on Saturday, since the lifting of health restrictions in the country a month ago, but the WHO has asked for more detailed figures.
After three years of some of the toughest restrictions in the worldChina abruptly lifted most of its coronavirus health measures in early December.
Submerged hospitals and crematoria
The number of patients grew rapidly. Hospitals find themselves overwhelmed with elderly patients and crematoria seem overwhelmed with the influx of bodies. Contrary to the situation observed on the ground, the authorities had so far reported only a handful of deaths.
Beijing also revised its methodology for accounting for Covid deaths in December. Now only people who died directly from Covid-related respiratory failure are included in the statistics. This controversial change in methodology means that a large number of deaths are no longer listed as due to Covid.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had criticized this new Chinese definition of death from Covid, deeming it “too narrow”. On Saturday, its director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, spoke with Minister Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commission, WHO said in a statement.
On this occasion, the WHO chief welcomed the publication of the new data and called on Beijing to continue sharing this information with the organization and the population. WHO is also asking for more detailed data on the evolution of the epidemic “by province over time”.
Non-exhaustive first evaluation
According to the report released on Saturday, “between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023, a total of 59,938 [décès] have been identified” in medical institutions across the country, health authority official Jiao Yahui told reporters.
Of those deaths, 5,503 were caused directly by respiratory failure related to Covid-19 and 54,435 deaths were due to underlying diseases associated with Covid, he said.
This assessment, which does not take into account deaths occurring outside the hospital system, is undoubtedly underestimated. The average age of the victims was 80 years. The elderly are seen as particularly vulnerable because many in China are poorly or unvaccinated.
Health authorities justify the publication of this report more than a month after the lifting of health restrictions, with enough time to bring the information.
Epidemic peak reached
The WHO had repeatedly expressed its doubts about the epidemiological data from Beijing.
“We continue to ask China for faster, more regular and more reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more complete and real-time sequencing of the virus,” Dr. Tedros insisted.
Beijing had chastised these criticisms and invited the WHO to adopt an “impartial” position on Covid. Even the epidemic peak seems to have passed. By the end of December, nearly 3 million patients across the country had consulted about fever, up from fewer than 500,000 as of January 12, according to data released on Saturday.
In Beijing, shopping malls, restaurants and transportation are once again in turmoil. The authorities fear a new outbreak of the epidemic with displacements linked to the Lunar New Year holidays, while millions of Chinese prepare to be reunited with their families.
“Unnecessary”
On Wednesday, the Chinese health authorities had estimated that it was not “necessary” immediately to dwell on the precise number of deaths related to Covid.
“The main task during the pandemic is to treat patients,” assured the epidemiologist Liang Wannian, head of the expert group against Covid commissioned by the National Health Commission.
Liang Wannian also argued for the lack of international consensus for the classification of a Covid-related death. China could determine the death figures by looking back at the excess mortality, even suggested Wang Guiqiang, head of the infectious diseases department at Peking University No. 1 Hospital.
At this Wednesday press conference, just 37 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in China since last month, out of a population of 1.4 billion.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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