The Chinese government has confirmed that nearly 60,000 people died in medical facilities across the country in coronavirus-related cases between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12, according to the latest balance sheet released Saturday by the National Health Commission.
Specifically, health authorities recorded 59,938 deaths, of which 5,503 were due to respiratory failure. The rest were attributed to previous pathologies directly worsened by COVID-19.
It should be noted that the Chinese authorities recently adopted a policy whereby they only identified COVID-19 deaths as those who died from a respiratory condition directly caused by the virus, and not those who succumbed to previous illnesses aggravated by the virus, as included in this report.
The average age of the deceased is 80.3 years and nine out of ten of those who died were 65 years of age or older, according to the report, presented by the director of the commission, Jiao Yahui, and reported by the South China Morning Post.
Jiao said, however, that the current wave of cases seems to have reached its peak and that the number of hospitalizations has declined in recent days «both in cities and in rural areas».
China opened its borders for the first time last week after nearly three years of isolation, in a further step towards ending its ‘Covid Zero’ policy designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and despite an explosion of cases in the previous weeks.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
