China: Announces first two patient deaths from COVID-19 complications after one year

Mainland China today recorded the first two deaths of patients due to complications of COVID-19 after more than a year, said the National Health Commission (s.s. the Ministry of Health), as the country has recently faced the most serious relapse of infections from the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic.

The two deaths in Jilin Province are the first to be reported since January 25, 2021 in mainland China – excluding Hong Kong and Macao – where, according to the Ministry of Health, 4,051 SARS-CoV cases have been confirmed. 2 in the previous 24 hours.

China, the country where the new coronavirus was first identified at the end of 2019, has until recently managed to keep the epidemic under full control, immediately imposing particularly strict and massive containment measures, but the Omicron variant, highly contagious, has caused them in recent months multiple outbreaks across the country.

Authorities were forced to restrict cities such as Shenzhen, a technology center with a population of 17.5 million (southern), at a time when China’s policy, which sums up the phrase zero cases, is now being challenged.

In the world’s second largest economy, which recorded less than a hundred cases three weeks ago, more than a thousand per 24 hours a week are now confirmed.

President Xi Jinping assured on Thursday that his government continues to pursue a “zero COVID” policy, according to public television.

“We must always put people and their lives first,” he said.

Tens of millions of Chinese are being restricted to their homes in various parts of the country, and authorities are trying to secure as many hospital beds as possible, fearing that a resurgence of the crisis will put pressure on the health system.

For Beijing, COVID-19’s extremely low mortality rate is a political argument — as it demonstrates the strength of the Chinese model of governance.

In Jilin County, where thousands of cases were reported last week, eight campaign hospitals and two quarantine centers were built.

Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous region of China, is also facing the worst wave of pandemic infections since the beginning of March, with some 200 deaths every 24 hours. The total number of victims now exceeded 5,100 dead.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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