China admits the first two deaths from covid amid its worst wave of infections

China has recognized on Monday the first two deaths from covid-19 since December 3, four days before the Asian giant shelved its strict zero covid policy and resigned itself to living with the coronavirus in the midst of the worst wave of infections registered to date.

The drastic abandonment of this strategy that the authorities had been clinging to for almost three years has caused new cases to skyrocket, especially in Beijing.

However, contrary to what happened in the rest of the countries when there was an increase in infections, the official number of deaths is practically nil, which has raised doubts about whether the authorities' count reflects transparently. the actual number of fatalities.

The deceased, both registered in Beijing, have been notified this Monday by the National Health Commission after several international media published evidence of dozens of deaths related to the coronavirus over the weekend.

EL PAÍS, which has spoken with doctors who work on the front lines of the land and has contacted the Pingfang Dongjiao crematorium, located in the largest district of the capital, has not been able to confirm this information, although the doctors have affirmed that the increase in cases has put in tension the medical resources of the capital city.

Officially, China has only registered 5,237 deaths since the start of the pandemic, a paltry number for its more than 1.4 billion people.

Yanzhong Huang, a Global Health specialist at the US

Council on Foreign Relations, asserts that "the [official] figure is clearly lower than the number of deaths from covid."

This expert considers that the data may be a reflection of "the State's lack of capacity to effectively monitor and control the disease situation on the ground after ending the massive PCR campaigns, but it may also be due to a effort to prevent panic from spreading among the population in the face of the increase in deaths from covid ”, quotes Reuters.

Some health experts have been warning that the death toll in the Asian giant could exceed a million and a half in the coming months, due to the fact that the most populous nation on the planet lacks group immunity after three years in which massive lockdowns have been applied and mobility has been greatly restricted both inside and outside the country.

According to a study carried out by three professors from the University of Hong Kong and published last week on the Medrxiv server (pending review), the simultaneous removal of covid restrictions in all provinces of China would cause a demand for hospitalization among 1.5 and 2.5 times higher than the capacity of hospitals, which could cause up to 684 deaths per million inhabitants.

Another key factor is that vaccination rates among the elderly remain very low.

According to the state news agency Xinhua, almost 87% of those over the age of 60 have been vaccinated with the full schedule, but the percentage drops to 66.4% among those over the age of 80. At the end of November, the government announced before the “new situation” of the covid a plan to accelerate vaccination of the elderly, the most vulnerable group but also the most reluctant to be inoculated.

According to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Hong Kong government, with 85% vaccination coverage of the fourth dose and 60% antiviral coverage, the number of deaths can be reduced by 26 % and 35%.

This Monday, users of Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, have questioned the veracity of the official figures.

“This is the first time deaths have been announced since the change in policy.

Reporting truthfully about the deceased and serious cases is the right thing to do, but the more you hide, the more panic will be generated”, writes Jianyujuan.

"If it's not true, then don't say it," criticizes Tangnaoya.

Other users also wonder on this social network about the recent deaths of two veteran journalists (Yang Lianghua, 74, and Zhou Zichun, 77) who had tested positive for covid, news that was echoed on Friday by the media. Chinese economic

, which is privately owned.

Their deaths are proof that the official version is flawed.

In both cases, as indicated by

, it was the family environment that provided the information.

On Saturday, this outlet also reported that a 23-year-old medical student had died after contracting the disease.

It is unknown if any of these deaths have been included in the official number of victims published by the authorities on Monday.