China reports nearly 60,000 Covid-related deaths since restrictions were lifted

China said on Saturday it had recorded nearly 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the month since the country lifted its strict “zero Covid” policy, accelerating an outbreak believed to have infected millions of people. The disclosure marked the first time China provided an official measure of the Covid wave now sweeping the country and represents a huge increase in the official death toll.

As of Saturday, China had reported a total of just 5,241 Covid deaths since the pandemic began in the city of Wuhan in late 2019. This measure was narrowly defined as deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by Covid. The new figure released on Saturday included those who had Covid but also died from other underlying conditions.

China has come under increasing criticism from other countries and the World Health Organization for failing to provide reliable data on the extent of its Covid outbreak and the number of deaths across the country, despite widespread scenes overcrowded hospitalsMorgues and funeral homes in recent weeks.

Before the announcement, China said only 37 people had died from Covid since December 7, the day it ended its “zero Covid” policy.

The lack of transparency prompted several countries, including Japan and South Korea, to impose travel restrictions on Chinese visitors afterwards China has reopened its borders last Sunday. Experts also warned that downplaying the severity of the outbreak could prompt people in the country to take fewer precautions.

China recorded 59,938 Covid-related deaths from December 8 to January 12, Jiao Yahui, an official with China’s National Health Commission, said at a news conference in Beijing. That figure included 5,503 people who died from respiratory failure directly caused by Covid. Another 54,435 deaths were linked to other underlying diseases, Ms Jiao said.

Ms Jiao said China could not release the data on Covid-related deaths earlier due to the need for a comprehensive scrutiny of hospital reporting.

“We organized experts to carry out a systematic analysis of the deaths, so it took a long time,” Ms. Jiao said.

It was unclear whether the new numbers mean that China has changed the way Covid deaths are disclosed Include people with underlying medical conditions whose condition has been made worse by the virus. Officials have claimed that China’s official toll only counts those who died from Covid-related pneumonia or respiratory failure. Other countries, like the United States and Britain, count Covid deaths more broadly.

Experts said it was too early to tell if China had changed course but welcomed the move to provide more data.

“We can’t make a judgment now, but it’s obviously more reliable than the previous data that said there were only multiple deaths,” said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. “I hope the government is becoming more transparent now.”

China has long tightly counted deaths from infectious diseases, including SARS in 2003 and seasonal flu. But during Shanghai’s spring 2022 lockdown, authorities made an exception, using a looser definition to justify residents’ lengthy confinement. Of the 588 Covid deaths reported by the Shanghai municipal government at the time, one was attributed to a heart attack and the rest to “underlying conditions” or “tumours”. Despite this inconsistency, the National Health Commission has never removed these deaths from the national toll on Covid deaths.

Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the real death toll in China, as in any country, was almost certainly higher. He said China could have provided more reliable data on death and infection rates if it had tested hospital patients more vigorously.

“The only thing that’s a little surprising is that China has so much testing capacity but hasn’t used it to confirm Covid in hospitalized patients,” Mr Cowling said.

Data from the National Health Commission confirmed long-standing fears that China’s elderly population would be hit hard by an outbreak because so many are not receiving enough vaccine doses. Of the nearly 60,000 fatalities, 56.5 percent involved someone aged at least 80.

Covid deaths are a particularly sensitive political issue in China, as Xi Jinping, the country’s supreme leader, had advocated a strategy of tough lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing to try to contain the virus. Mr Xi boasted that the model could be adopted by other countries after proving successful in suppressing transmission early in the pandemic.

However, as the highly infectious Omicron variant gained momentum last year, that strategy became untenable. As cases rose steadily across the country, Protests broke out in November as more and more people grew weary of the Covid restrictions. Already under great economic strain, China abruptly reversed its “zero Covid” policy without giving the country the opportunity to stock up on medicines.

Officials said in recent days that infections in major cities have peaked, despite growing concerns about what the current coronavirus wave will look like affect the nation’s landscapewhich has a far weaker healthcare system compared to China’s cities.