13,000 deaths Through 6 days in China

China announced nearly 13,000 hospitalized Covid-related deaths between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population had already contracted the virus.

China said a week ago that nearly 60,000 people had died of Covid in hospitals as of January 12.

Antivirus controls

There has been widespread skepticism about the official data since Beijing abruptly scrapped anti-virus controls last month.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Saturday that 681 hospitalized patients have died of respiratory failure caused by coronavirus infection, and 11,977 died from other diseases associated with infection during this period.

 Knowing that, the numbers do not include those who have died with the virus at home.

Daily covid deaths in China

“Airfinity” an independent forecasting firm, has estimated that daily Covid deaths in China will peak at around 36,000 during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The company also estimated that more than 600,000 people have died from the disease since China abandoned its zero Covid policy in December.

Tens of millions of people have traveled across the country in recent days for a long-awaited reunion with families to celebrate the biggest holiday in the lunar calendar, raising fears of a new outbreak.

A second wave of coronavirus infections

A senior health official said that China will not see a second wave of coronavirus infections in the next two to three months after millions return to villages to celebrate the Lunar New Year because nearly 80 percent of the population has already contracted the virus.

"Although a large number of people traveling during the Spring Festival may encourage the spread of the epidemic to some extent... the current wave of the epidemic has already infected about 80 percent of the people in the country,"

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform “In the short term, in the next two to three months, "the possibility of a second wave of the epidemic across the country is very small."

Chinese transport authorities predicted more than two billion trips would be taken this month through February in one of the largest mass movements of people in the world.