respiratory failure
China reports almost 60,000 corona deaths in one month
According to official figures, around 60,000 people died from or with a corona infection in China after the end of the strict zero-Covid policy. This was announced by the National Health Commission on Saturday.
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In just one month, 60,000 people have died from Corona in China.
Around a month after abandoning its strict zero-Covid policy, China has reported nearly 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths. A total of 59,938 deaths were registered between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023, a senior official of the National Health Commission, Jiao Yahui, said at a press conference on Saturday.
The statistics only take into account deaths within medical facilities, the actual number of deaths is likely to be higher. It is the first major overview published by the government since the corona easing in China in December.
Millions of people not vaccinated against Covid-19
According to Jiao, among the nearly 60,000 reported deaths, 5,503 people are directly attributable to shortness of breath caused by the coronavirus. In the rest, the deaths were caused by underlying diseases in combination with Covid-19.
According to the Chinese health authorities, the average age of the deceased was 80.3 years, and 90 percent of the fatalities were over 65 years old. Most of them suffered from underlying diseases. In China, millions of people over the age of 60 are not vaccinated against the corona virus.
In the past few weeks, the number of corona infections in China has exploded. In mid-December, the government in Beijing gave up its long-standing, strict zero-Covid policy.
China changed the way it counted the deaths from the coronavirus
Last month, the Chinese authorities changed the way they counted corona deaths. Only corona infected people who died directly due to respiratory failure are still counted as corona dead. As a result, many deaths are no longer included in the corona statistics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized the change in categorization in China last week. In addition, the WHO repeatedly called for faster and more comprehensive transmission of corona data from China.
The rapid increase in the number of infections in China has sparked concern around the world. Many EU countries, including Germany, now require travelers from the People’s Republic to have a negative corona test. In Germany, travelers from China are also randomly tested for possible new variants of the corona virus after landing. (AFP)