China announced on Saturday at least 60,000 deaths in hospitals in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic since the lifting of health restrictions in the country a month ago.
China, criticized for its lack of transparency on the Covid-19 epidemic, announced Saturday at least 60,000 deaths linked to the virus, since the lifting of health restrictions in the country a month ago, but the WHO asked for more detailed data.
After three years of some of the most draconian restrictions in the world, China abruptly lifted most of its health measures against the coronavirus in early December.
Submerged hospitals and crematoriums
The number of patients has grown rapidly. Hospitals find themselves overwhelmed with elderly patients and crematoriums appear overwhelmed by the influx of bodies. Contrary to the situation observed on the ground, only a handful of deaths had so far been reported by the authorities.
Beijing also reviewed its methodology for accounting for Covid deaths in December. Only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to Covid are now included in the statistics. This controversial change in methodology means that a large number of deaths are no longer listed as being due to Covid.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had criticized this new Chinese definition of a Covid death, 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, the WHO said in a statement.
On this occasion, the head of the WHO welcomed the publication of the new data, and called on Beijing to continue to share this information with the organization and the population. The WHO is also asking for more detailed data on the evolution of the epidemic “by province over time”.
First non-exhaustive assessment
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 establishments across the country, health authority official Jiao Yahui told reporters.
Of these deaths, 5,503 were caused directly by respiratory failure related to Covid-19 and 54,435 deaths were due to underlying illnesses associated with Covid, she 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 old. The elderly are considered particularly vulnerable because many in China are poorly or not vaccinated.
The health authorities justify the publication of this report more than a month after the lifting of health restrictions, by the time necessary to bring up 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, regular and reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more complete and real-time sequencing of the virus”, insisted Dr Tedros.
Beijing had castigated these criticisms and called on the WHO to adopt an “impartial” position on the Covid. The epidemic peak also seems to have passed. At the end of December, nearly 3 million patients across the country had consulted for fever, against less than 500,000 on January 12, according to figures released on Saturday.
In Beijing, shopping malls, restaurants and transport are once again bustling. The authorities fear a new epidemic rebound with displacements linked to the Lunar New Year festivities, as millions of Chinese prepare to reunite with their families.
“Not necessary”
On Wednesday, the Chinese health authorities had estimated that it was “not necessary” immediately to dwell on the precise number of deaths linked to Covid.
“The main task during the pandemic is to treat patients,” assured epidemiologist Liang Wannian, head of the group of experts against Covid commissioned by the National Health Commission.
Liang Wannian also argued for the lack of consensus at the international level for the classification of a death linked to Covid. China could determine the death figures by examining excess mortality a posteriori, even suggested Wang Guiqiang, head of the infectious diseases department of Peking University Number 1 Hospital.
At this press conference on Wednesday, only 37 Covid-related deaths had been recorded in China since last month, out of a population of 1.4 billion.
