The number only includes deaths in hospitals. It is feared that with the Lunar New Year celebrations the number of deaths will increase to 36,000 per day.
China reported in the last few hours that at least 13,000 people died “in relation to covid-19” between January 13 and 19, three years after the first outbreak in Wuhan that infected the entire planet.
This figure, which only reflects the deceased in hospitalsadds to the 60,000 dead since Decemberpreviously announced by the authorities.
Undoubtedly, this is a partial balance in a country with 1.4 billion inhabitants, where numerous hospitals and crematoriums they were overwhelmed during the past month.
about 80% of the population in China contracted covid-19 since the lifting of sanitary restrictions in early December, according to epidemiologist Wu Zunyu, a leader in the country in the fight against the virus.
The measures known as “Covid-zero” decreed gigantic confinements, of entire cities when a handful of cases were detected. Urban quarantines could last for weeks. It was also mandatory to carry out massive tests, which made it possible to keep a count of cases.
But the social unrest caused by these measures and the impact on the Chinese economy caused them to be lifted. Travelers were even stopped being asked to quarantine upon arrival.
China abandoned its “zero Covid” policy after three years of strict sanitary control. Raising him, without a contingency plan, was like the rupture of a reservoir.
Con poor vaccination, especially in its most vulnerable population. The end of the “Covid-zero” resulted in a sudden wave of infections without control, or testing.
help from the west
The European Union offered to send help in medicines in the face of this enormous wave of infections, but China has not shown “enthusiasm” in receiving them, said the Director General of Health of the European Commission, Sandra Gallina, on Monday.
The senior European official explained to the European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health that community officials held a meeting with Chinese officials on January 10 and discussed the possibility of sending “not only vaccines but also antivirals such as Paxlovid (…) And the response was not enthusiastic.
Beijing nor has he accepted the vaccines and medicines offered by the United Statesas published by the US media in recent weeks.
The numbers
The 13,000 deaths reported by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), does not cover those who have died at home because of the virus.
The situation should not improve. It is expected that due to the Lunar New Year Festival, that was celebrated this Monday, when hundreds of millions of people moved to see their relatives, the number of deaths could rise to 36,000 per day.
Tens of millions of people traveled this weekend to reunite with their families and celebrate the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar.
“There will be no second wave”
However, a Chinese health official said on Monday that the country will not suffer a second wave of infections in the next two to three months after millions of people travel to their hometowns from the big cities, since about 80% of the population has already been infected.
“Although the large number of people traveling during the Spring Festival may promote the spread of the epidemic to a certain extent, the current wave of the epidemic has already infected about 80% of the population,” said Wu Zunyou, chief of epidemiology at the CDC. in a post on the Weibo social network.
“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,” he added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) questions the change in Beijing’s methodology to count victimsaccording to which only people who die directly from respiratory failure are included, which leaves out a large number of deaths also caused by the virus.
Agencies
ap