China reports its first deaths from covid-19 after restrictions are lifted

China continued today to report barely five deaths from covid despite the rapid spread of the virus after the withdrawal of restrictionsa situation that has raised questions about whether the government is revealing the real number of victims.

The National Health Commission announced on Monday two deaths from the disease, while today it registered another five, the first since the 3rd, just before the government relaxed its strict policy ‘zero covid’ and, among other measures, allow those infected to isolate themselves in their homes instead of being held in isolation centers, as had been the case for the past three years.

The change in strategy occurred after the unprecedented protests that broke out in several Chinese cities over the exhaustion generated by the restrictions imposed to contain the outbreaks.

However, the demolition of the policy has left the country virtually paralyzed, with empty streets and an increase in infections that, however, is not reflected in official statistics -China reported only 2,722 new cases this Tuesday-, once the PCR tests that residents had to undergo several times a week were abandoned in order to access public establishments.

However, many in the Asian country suspect that official statistics are not recording the real number of deaths from covid that have occurred in recent weeks.

Officially, China has announced 5,242 deaths from covid since the pandemic beganincluding the deaths registered yesterday and today, among a population of more than 1,400 million people.

Videos shared on social networks show long lines at crematoriums in cities such as Beijing, while some users of Weibo, equivalent to Twitter, assure that “It is impossible” that the number of casualties offered is real.

“I know of many more people who have died in recent days apart from those figures that we see in the statistics,” says one user, while another makes calculations and ensures that in Beijing, where more than 20 million people live, they will die. at least 15,000 residents this winter.

“The statistics are incomplete. Why?” asks another.

In this sense, the private newspaper Caixin recently assured that the authorities have changed the way in which deaths from the virus are classified “to ensure that the death is due to the covid and not to underlying diseases.”

For its part, the Government defends that it has saved millions of lives thanks to ‘zero covid’ and, according to state television CGTN, although the global mortality rate during the three years of the pandemic is 1.03%, “in China is lower, 0.31%”, thanks to its tough strategy to protect itself from the virus despite the effects it has had on the economy and social exhaustion.

Lockdown

The reality is that the explosion of cases has left thousands of people with symptoms “self-confined” at homewhile some cities have had to transform the ubiquitous PCR test booths into care posts for patients with fever or the sale of medicines and medical supplies.

“The Government decided to fully open without having made a sufficient collection of medicines, and now people do not even dare to go out to buy them. They have to make sure that everyone can access them,” says another user on Weibo.

On the sidelines, the authorities are preparing to face the next wave of infections, scheduled according to Chinese experts for the Lunar New Year holidays, the largest annual migration in the world and which in 2023 will fall between January 21 and 27. .

Thus, the Executive has already asked local governments to give priority to health services in rural areas “to protect the population”, pointing out “their relative scarcity of medical care resources”, the high mobility during vacations and the journeys of migrant workers returning to their places of origin.

The Chinese government assured earlier this month that the “conditions” were in place for the country to adjust its measures in the face of a “new situation” in which the virus causes fewer deaths, although it also announced a plan to accelerate vaccination of the elderly. , one of the most vulnerable groups but at the same time more reluctant to be inoculated.

The official press also began a few weeks ago to minimize the risk of the omicron variant through numerous articles and interviews with experts, a turn of argument that accompanied the relaxation of some of the strictest measures of the ‘zero covid’ policy. . (YO)