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Reports of Beijing Covid deaths fuel speculation China covering up data


The number of people who died positive for Covid came BeijingAccording to media reports, the number of funeral homes and crematoriums is increasing, according to media reports, even though China has not reported a death from the virus for two weeks. .
The Chinese capital is in the worst condition Covid no wave, after officials across the country abruptly abandoned the stringent restrictions that had contained the virus for most of the past three years. Staff at a crematorium in Beijing told the Financial Times they had cremated the bodies of at least 30 Covid victims on Wednesday, while a relative of one of the dead said their family member had died. infected with the virus, according to the Associated Press. Reuters reported that funeral homes in Beijing were overcrowded.
However, China has not recorded any Covid deaths since December 4, when two cases were brought in, an 84-year-old man from Sichuan province with underlying health conditions. and another in Shandong province. Last official Covid death reported to Beijing – which was seeing thousands of cases a day even before China quickly gave the green light Covid Zero — recorded on November 23: An 87-year-old woman, authorities reported, has chronic heart disease.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to control the scale of China’s Covid-19 onslaught, with the country last week halting reporting of asymptomatic cases, which typically make up the majority of total cases. infected. Even before that move, the country’s dismantling of once-popular PCR testing equipment and increased use of rapid antigen kits meant that official data was mostly meaningless.
However, deaths are much less likely to be in the spotlight than cases.
A spokesman for China’s National Health Commission told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that people who died positive for Covid were classified as having died from the virus, regardless of whether it was a direct cause of death. to their death or not. However, reports from funeral homes and crematoriums in Beijing suggest that may no longer be the case, or that local authorities or hospitals are classifying deaths differently.
When contacted on Sunday, the NHC had no comment on reports of Covid deaths and extended funeral homes in Beijing.
Dongjiao Funeral Home in Beijing cremated 150 bodies on Wednesday, the 30th or 40th with Covid, a worker who requested anonymity told the FT. This employee is said to have said Covid deaths are being prioritized for cremation. FT reporters also saw body bags at a designated hospital for patients with the virus.
Dongjiao and another funeral home have been designated by Beijing health authorities to cremate those who died after testing positive, a relative of one of the dead told AP. People outside Dongjiao told the news agency that at least two of the dead who were cremated there have died and tested positive.
Calls to Dongjiao and three other funeral homes in Beijing went unanswered, while workers at other funeral homes – in Shunyi, northeast of central Beijing and the satellite town of Huairou – declined Answer questions about Covid deaths or procedures.
Xi’s policy
China has reported only 5,235 Covid deaths since the pandemic began in late 2019, with the first known cases in the city center of Wuhan. The system of blockade, mass testing, and mandatory isolation that emerged from that crisis, helped China go through a long period of the pandemic with almost no virus.
Chairperson Xi Jinping closely linked his rule to the Covid Zero policy, which he used to praise China’s superiority over the West, especially the US – which has seen more than 1 million Official death from Covid.
All that has changed in the past few weeks, as mass protests across China’s major cities have seen Beijing go against the policy that has plagued the world’s second-largest economy. five. Official rhetoric has shifted from belittling Covid to downplaying it, with a top medical adviser telling college students last week that the virus could be described as a “cold.” .
A wave of Covid deaths would undermine the Chinese government’s narrative that it has handled the virus better than other countries and that it has chosen this moment to pivot on the basis of science. .
The country is lifting restrictions in the winter, and as vaccination rates among the elderly remain lower than in other countries, have reopened after pursuing their goal of eliminating the virus. China’s hospitals, especially outside of major cities, have limited resources and it’s unclear whether the country has enough stock of antivirals and other Covid drugs.
One million deaths
While projections vary, China could see nearly 1 million Covid deaths when it reopens, according to a report by researchers in Hong Kong on Thursday. Modeling by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation shows that the number of deaths could reach 1 million by 2023 due to the sudden reversal of Covid Zero leading to a spike .
The fact that Covid is finally allowed to circulate freely in China could disrupt global supply chains, with a wave of absenteeism expected in what is often referred to as the world’s factory. Companies from Volkswagen AG to refining giant Sinopec are bracing for serious outbreaks.
The lack of any deaths reported since the curbs were lifted is also raising questions for some Chinese, with those on social media platforms like Weibo placing questioned whether deaths in places like Beijing would increase and complained of long lines at funeral homes.
There have been questions about China’s Covid data since the start of the pandemic, as reports of long lines and piles of urns at funeral homes in Wuhan fueled speculation that the country – was being criticized at the time for being the source of Covid – obscuring the real number. belong to dead people. The official Covid death toll was revised upwards by approximately 1,290 deaths in April 2020, a 40% increase in the total number of deaths in one go.
At the time, China dismissed suggestions that there had been a cover-up, saying the additions included cases of people dying at home without seeing a doctor or being tested for Covid. China said at the time that hospitals were overwhelmed to treat patients in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak, and the revisions also included late reporting by medical staff and not enough.

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