New Delhi: China finally reported its first Covid-19-related deaths in weeks, amid mounting doubts over whether the official count was capturing the full toll of the virus. The country of 1.4 billion people reported five new deaths on December 19 compared to two the previous day, raising the country’s official death toll to 5,242. The new fatalities were reported by the National Health Commission (NHC) for the first time since December 3, when Beijing announced it was lifting strict Covid-19 restrictions that roughly contained the disease for three years. Had kept the tax, but in the last few days widespread protest started. month.

China also reported 2,722 new symptomatic coronavirus infections on 19 December, compared to 1,995 a day earlier. Excluding imported infections, China reported 2,656 new local cases, up from 1,918 the day before. As of Monday, Mainland China has confirmed 3,83,175 symptomatic COVID-19 cases. However, Covid-19 cases and related deaths are expected to rise in the coming months as the virus continues to spread through cities after Xi Jinping’s government relaxed strict anti-virus controls.

China’s chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyao said last week that the country was in the grip of the first of three Covid-19 waves expected this winter. Beijing city official Xu Hejian also said on Monday that the virus was spreading rapidly in the capital.

Nevertheless, Beijing city official Xu Hejian said more restrictions would be lifted, allowing previously closed underground venues, from bars to internet cafes, to reopen.

While top officials have been downplaying the threat posed by the Omicron strain of the virus in recent weeks, officials are concerned about the elderly, who have been reluctant to get vaccinated.

Some fear that the death toll from COVID-19 in China could exceed one million in the coming days.

China lifting COVID-19 restrictions could lead to explosion of cases, more than 1 million deaths

China’s sudden lifting of its stringent COVID-19 restrictions could lead to an explosion of cases and more than one million deaths next year, according to new estimates from the US-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

According to the group’s estimates, coronavirus cases in China will peak around April 1, 2023, when the death toll will reach 3,22,000.

IHME director Christopher Murray said that by then about a third of China’s population would have been infected.

“No one thought they would stick to zero-COVID as long as they did,” he said last week when the IHME estimates were released online.