Beijing: Chinese authorities informed that around 13,000 people died of Covid-19 from January 13 to 19, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China reported that 681 people were hospitalized and died of respiratory failures caused by the pandemic. 11,977 died of other diseases but were affected by the pandemic over the period, it said.
However, the numbers do not include those who died of the virus at home.
Meanwhile, an independent forecasting firm estimated that daily Covid-19 deaths in the country would peak at around 36,000 during the Lunar New Year holiday. It also estimated that more than 6 lakh people had died in the country after Beijing removed the Zero-Covid-19 policy in December.
China has been struggling for a long with frequent outbreaks of infections that forced authorities to introduce a strict Zero Covid policy. There were reports of people violently confronting enforcement officials during lockdowns before protests erupted in several places in the nation. That was when the government eventually opened the nation withdrawing the zero-covid policy.
Also, tens of thousands leaving for villages to meet their families during the Lunar New Year holiday has increased the fears of more outbreaks. But a top health official from the nation opined that though the number of deaths might increase, chances of fresh outbreaks in the next two to three months are considerably low since 80 per cent of the Chinese population is already infected.
Chinese transport authorities have predicted that there will be more than two billion trips to happen the next month, one of the world’s largest mass movements of people.