China has reported almost 60,000 COVID-related deaths since early December.

The announcement follows complaints that the Chinese government was failing to release data about the status of the pandemic.

China dropped its strict zero COVID policy on 7 December.

The 59,938 people that died in hospitals between 8 December and 12 January had an average age of 80.3.

Of those, 5,503 were caused by respiratory function failure due to COVID infection while 54,435 resulted from a combination of diseases and COVID infections, officials said.

They said COVID fever and emergency hospitalisations had peaked, with the number of hospitalised coronavirus patients continuing to decline.

Nationwide, “the number of fever clinic visitors is generally in a declining trend after peaking, both in cities and
rural areas,” Jiao Yahui, an official from the National Health Commission, told a news conference.

Ms Jiao said the number of emergency treatment patients was also declining and the ratio of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 was steadily dropping as well.

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