China reports sharp drop in Covid deaths during Lunar New Year holiday

A total of 6,364 hospital patients with Covid-19 die from January 20 to 26, down by about half from a week earlier, according to CDC figures
The decrease mirrors trends in hospitalisations and severe illness, but doubts about Beijing’s health data still linger

Coronavirus China

Phoebe Zhang

Published: 4:01pm, 29 Jan 2023

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China reported a sharp drop in Covid-19 deaths among hospital patients during the Lunar New Year holiday, mirroring trends in hospitalisations and severe illness.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it recorded 6,364 deaths from January 20 to 26, down from 12,658 between January 13 and 19.

Covid-related respiratory failure caused 289 deaths in the seven-day period from January 20, while 6,075 deaths were recorded among Covid-19 patients who had underlying diseases.

China says Covid death toll in hospitals is on a downward trend

China’s official death toll has been called into question. According to some experts, Beijing’s narrow criteria for classifying Covid-19 deaths could underestimate the true scale of the outbreak, making it difficult to develop strategies to protect the public.

The National Health Commission (NHC) announced last month that only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure would be classified as deaths caused by Covid-19. Jiao Yahui, an official with the commission, later said China would report deaths from Covid-related respiratory failure as well as deaths of other patients infected with the coronavirus.

According to CDC data, there are now 215,958 Covid-19 patients in China’s hospitals – about 45 per cent of the number recorded last week – and 26,156 of them are classified as severe cases, down by about half from a week earlier.

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China stopped releasing daily Covid-19 case numbers in December following controversy over its low death figures as an Omicron tsunami swept the nation.

In January, the NHC released its first death toll since Beijing’s abrupt pivot away from its zero-Covid policy. It recorded almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths between December 8 and January 12, but concerns about the undercounting of deaths still lingered.

Jiao said on January 14 that the current wave of cases had peaked.

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CDC reports show that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests have dropped dramatically nationwide, from 150 million on December 9 to 7.54 million on January 1 and just 280,000 on January 23. Positive rates also dropped to 5.5 per cent on January 23 from a peak of 29.2 per cent on December 25.

The CDC said the dominant Omicron variant from December 1 to January 23 was BA.5.2, followed by BF.7.

In December, the World Health Organization urged China to share specific and timely information in light of concerns about a lack of transparency about the country’s Covid-19 surge.

It asked Chinese officials to regularly share “specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation”, including “more genetic sequencing data” and data on hospital admissions, deaths and vaccinations.

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Earlier this month, China pushed back against allegations it has not been transparent about the severity of its Covid-19 surge and suggested that its incidence of severe illness and death compared favourably with other nations.

“China has always shared its information and data responsibly with the international community,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on January 4.

Some countries have imposed restrictions on travellers from China, such as demanding negative Covid-19 tests, and have called on Beijing to share more data with the rest of the world.