China sharply revises death toll linked to covid outbreak to 60,000 from 37🤯

 

China updated its official death toll for the most recent coronavirus outbreak on Saturday, increasing it from just 37 to nearly 60,000 deaths since December when pandemic restrictions were loosened and infections soared throughout the nation.

The declaration comes in response to civilian accusations that the government has been understating the number of deaths brought on by the virus and condemnation from foreign health experts.

Authorities have recently been under increased scrutiny as a result of reports of overcrowded hospitals and funeral homes. According to satellite images, first-person footage, and interviews with workers and residents of crematoriums, a story published last week by The Washington Post found an increase in traffic outside funeral facilities.

In a press conference, the National Health Commission stated that hospitals have documented at least 59,938 deaths linked to COVID-19 between December 8 and January 12. 5,503 of those deaths involved respiratory failure brought on by the virus, while the remaining deaths were brought on by underlying illnesses and covid-19 together. The patients that passed away were, on average, 80.3 years old.

Between December 7 and January 8, the last day the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention provided daily numbers, China has only before reported 37 deaths. China's CDC estimated that 5,272 people had passed since since the outbreak started as of January 8.

According to Jiao Yahui, a representative of the National Health Commission, there has been a decrease in the number of people visiting fever clinics in urban and rural areas, from a peak of 2.9 million on December 23 to less than 500,000 on January 12.

“The data show that the national emergency peak has passed,” Jiao said.

China has maintained a strong zero-covid policy during the majority of the epidemic, which has been carried out through stringent lockdowns, obligatory quarantines, mass testing, and the tracking of citizens. Authorities abruptly lifted those limits on December 7 in response to widespread protests against those limits in late November and a rise in omicron cases.

Health officials have since documented instances in all 31 provinces, municipalities, and regions of the nation, but they haven't given accurate numbers on how widespread the outbreak really is. Using online search engine results, Peking University researchers calculated that 64 percent of the country's population was infected with the virus, totaling more than 900 million people.

China's official death toll is distorted since testing is not required and covid fatalities are defined narrowly as positive individuals who pass away from respiratory failure. Officials have stated that they will look into fatalities and publish the findings later.

Beijing has been urged by the World Health Organization to provide more details, claiming that officials are understating the number of hospitalizations and fatalities. A number of nations, including the US, South Korea, and Japan, have started requesting coronavirus testing for travelers arriving from China. In response to these restrictions, Beijing has promised to take "countermeasures," and last week it banned the issuance of short-term visas to potential tourists from South Korea and Japan.