China reports almost 13,000 deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals over the past week

China reported nearly 13,000 drug-related deaths. covid in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a senior health official said that the vast majority of the population had already contracted the virus.

China had reported a week ago that nearly 60,000 people had died from covid in hospitals as of January 12, but there has been skepticism about the statistics since Beijing lifted controls last month.

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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of China reported on Saturday that 681 hospitalized patients died from respiratory failure due to the coronavirus and another 11,977 died from other illnesses combined with the virus.

These data do not include people who died at home.

Airfinity, an independent consultancy, estimated that China’s daily death rate will peak at 36,000 during the Lunar New Year this weekend.

The firm also estimated that more than 600,000 people have died of the disease since China abandoned its zero-Covid policy in December.

China has already passed the peak of infections based on admissions to clinics, emergencies and intensive care units, it said Thursday. guo yanhonga senior official at the National Health Commission.

Low probability of a second wave

Tens of millions of people traveled this weekend to reunite with their families and celebrate the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar this Sunday, raising fears of a worsening of the epidemic outbreak.

The Chinese transport authorities project that between this month and February more than 2,000 million journeys will be made, one of the most massive movements of people in the world.

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday expressed concern about a spread of the virus in rural China, which has fewer health resources.

But, a senior Chinese health official said the country will not experience a second wave of infections in the next two to three months after millions of people travel to their hometowns from big cities, as around the 80% of the population has already been infected.

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“Although the large number of people traveling during the Spring Festival may promote a spread of the epidemic to a certain extent (…) the current epidemic wave has already infected about 80% of the population“, he claimed Wu Zunyouthe CDC’s chief of epidemiology, in a post on the Weibo social network on Saturday.

“In the short term, for example, in the next two to three months the possibility of (…) a second wave of the epidemic in the country is very low”.

On Saturday, residents of Wuhan, the country’s central megapolis where the new coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit on Saturday night with fireworks, flowers and offerings to the dead. by the virus.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.