China’s Covid Crisis: More Than 60,000 Dead Since Controls Were Lifted

More Covid news is coming out of China.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, hospitals in China registered over 60,000 deaths since the government lifted Covid-zero controls in early December.

Across December, China was engulfed in the Omicron wave, resulting in rapid rise of cases and clogging of hospitals. 

Until recently, China was claiming that the death count was registered to single digits, thus inviting criticism from health experts, and even the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Over the weekend, the revelation of around 60,000 deaths came from China’s National Health Commission. People above the age of 65 made up for 90 per cent of the deaths. 

The vulnerability of the elderly population was being routinely reported even before the Omicron wave hit China.

Only 80 per cent of the population above the age of 60 had been given two shots, and only 55 per cent had a booster dose. China’s health ministry was involved in a systematic analysis to ensure that the deaths were due to Covid, as per the reports. 

The Wall Street Journal, in its report, also claimed that more than 250 million had been infected with Covid in the first twenty days of December. However, the government’s official number was far less.

Also, if patients had any other underlying disease, the hospitals were not registering them as Covid deaths. 

In December, long queues have been reported outside Covid clinics in several Chinese cities.

This came merely a few weeks after the Xi regime abandoned Covid-zero controls in main cities and manufacturing hubs, citing a slowdown in the economy. Shanghai, Shenzhen, and several other cities were under immense stress with pharmacies running out of medicine stocks.

As per another report, 900 million people in China, or more than 60 per cent of the population had contracted the virus since the start of the pandemic.