JAKARTA - China's National Health Commission (HNC) released the latest data that 59,938 local residents died during the peak of the COVID-19 spike from December 8, 2022 to January 12, 2023.
Jiao Yahui, an NHC official, told the press in Beijing on Saturday, January 14, that it was classifying deaths from positive COVID-19 based on PCR test results in accordance with international standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He said, the average age who died from COVID-19 in that period was 80.3 years.
More than 90 percent of COVID-19 patients who died also suffered from congenital diseases.
According to him, the cause of COVID-19 death is two - - - corona virus infection which causes respiratory failure or congenital disease that interacts with the corona virus.
Among the 59,938 deaths from COVID-19, 5,503 cases were due to respiratory tract failures due to the virus attack, and 54,435 cases were accompanied by congenital diseases, the NHC said.
Jiao added that winter in China, which triggered the interaction of respiratory tract diseases and other diseases, affected the elderly so that most of these groups became victims of the latest wave of COVID-19 cases.
"This warns us to focus more on elderly patients and we will do our best to save the lives of residents," the female official said, quoted by Antara.
Jiao further stated that his party had formed a reporting platform aimed at collecting and analyzing deaths related to COVID-19 scientifically and fact-based. The platform will take effect on December 31, 2022.
In addition, medical institutions across China are required to collect and report information about deaths recorded between December 8 and 29.
It took some time for experts to analyze most of the data in presenting objective science-based reports about the number of deaths from COVID-19, Jiao said.
The spike in COVID-19 cases that began in December 2022 coincided with the local authority's policy of loosening health protocols. In that month, the NHC decided to no longer publish daily COVID-19 data.
On January 8, 2023, China released its citizens from traveling abroad. Several countries in Europe plus the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia require Chinese citizens to show negative PCR test results before departure because China is accused of not being transparent regarding the latest COVID-19 data.
China considers the policies of these countries to be discriminatory, followed by countermeasures by not granting visas to South Korean and Japanese citizens.
Several media also reported views of places of the creamatorium, particularly in Beijing and Shanghai, which were overwhelmed by the bodies of COVID-19 patients.
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