China says Covid death toll in hospitals is on a downward trend

Name: No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind
Uploaded: 2023-01-25T13:19:31.000Z
Duration: 5 min 12 s
Description: No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind

The national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says deaths in hospitals peaked on January 4 and stood at less than a thousand on Monday

The number of patients being treated in fever clinics is also reported to be on a downward trend

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A hospital ward in Beijing, where researchers estimate more than 90 per cent of the population will have been infected by the end of the month. Photo: Xinhua

Holly Chik

Published: 9:19pm, 25 Jan 2023

China said the daily Covid-19 death toll in hospitals nationwide has been decreasing after peaking on January 4 at nearly 4,300.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday said it recorded 896 deaths on January 23, the second day of Lunar New Year.

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No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind

The report provided the daily hospital death count as a bar chart instead of numbers, except for the two days where it provided precise figures.

China stopped releasing daily Covid-19 caseloads one month ago after the figures failed to deliver the full picture of an Omicron tsunami sweeping through the nation.

Earlier this month, the National Health Commission for the first time released a death toll since the abrupt pivot away from the zero-Covid policy in December.

It recorded almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths between December 8 and January 12, but concerns that many fatalities are not being properly recorded remain.