Covid deaths, severe cases down more than 70%, China says

THE numbers of Covid-related deaths and severe cases at Chinese hospitals have declined by more than 70 per cent from peak levels in early January, said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP) on Wednesday (Jan 25).

Daily fatalities at hospitals across the country dipped to 896 on Monday, from a high of 4,273 on Jan 4, the agency said. Meanwhile, severe cases fell to 36,000 on Monday, down 72 per cent from the peak of 128,000 on Jan 5.

Nearly 10,000 new severe cases were added daily between Dec 27 and Jan 3, the CCDCP noted.  

Earlier this month, China was urged by the World Health Organization (WHO) to release more detailed information on its Covid situation. This came amid a surge in cases after Beijing abruptly ended its zero-Covid policy.

The government drew criticism for halting daily caseload reports, and for dramatically narrowing its definition of a Covid death so that only the deaths of individuals with respiratory failure would be counted.

Following this, Chinese authorities reported deaths that fell outside the narrower definition, in an attempt to address the concerns. The CCDCP said earlier this week that 12,658 Covid-linked deaths were logged at hospitals between Jan 13 and Jan 19. A week before that, it reported 59,938 such deaths between Jan 8 and Jan 12.

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Still, the true toll could be hundreds of thousands higher than the official figure, which still excludes deaths outside hospitals.

Separately, the CCDCP said that daily visits to fever clinics dropped to 63,000 on Monday, down almost 98 per cent from a peak of 2.9 million on Dec 23. BLOOMBERG