China claims that since modifying the criterion, there have been no new COVID deaths.

China claims that after modifying the criterion for registering virus deaths so that the majority are no longer counted, not a single person had died of COVID-19 the day before.

BEIJING: After modifying the criterion for registering viral deaths so that the majority are no longer counted, China reported on Wednesday that not a single person had died of COVID-19 the previous day. Following the abrupt lifting of years-long lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing by the Chinese government, hospitals are suffering, pharmacy shelves are empty, and crematoriums are overburdened. Since the decision to withdraw the zero-COVID policy, China has recorded a total of seven fatalities, all of which occurred in Beijing; however, on Wednesday, one death was dropped off the official count.

The decision to exclude the data came when the government declared that only individuals who had succumbed to respiratory failure brought on by the virus would be included in COVID mortality statistics.

Previously, COVID deaths were recorded for those who passed away from a disease while carrying the virus. The vast majority of deaths recorded using the COVID method are deaths.

“At present after being infected with the Omicron variant, the main cause of death remains underlying diseases,” Wang Guiqiang of Peking University First Hospital told a press conference of the National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday.

“Old people have other underlying conditions, only a very small number die directly of respiratory failure caused by infection with COVID,” he said.

And one expert told AFP that because the prevalant Omicron variant does not affect the lungs as much as other strains of COVID-19, the changing definition will mean a great many more cases will now go unrecorded.