China On Covid-19 Deaths: China claims – no new deaths occurred after changing the criteria

China said on Wednesday that not a single person died of COVID-19 the previous day, after changing the criteria for recording deaths from the virus which means it is no longer counted.

The government on Tuesday said only those who died directly from respiratory failure caused by the virus would be counted in the Covid death toll. Earlier people who died of disease while infected with the virus were counted as Covid deaths. This method of recording Covid deaths is the reason for a large number of deaths in other countries.

Wang Guiqiang of Peking University First Hospital said at a press conference of the National Health Commission (NHC), 'currently after being infected with the Omicron variant, the main cause of death remains the underlying diseases.'

"While older people have other underlying conditions, only a very small number of people die directly from respiratory failure due to COVID infection," he added.

'We are not escaping from the dangers of Covid. At the same time, we need to assess the dangers of Covid scientifically.

From the country's northeast to its southwest, crematorium workers have told AFP they are struggling with a rise in deaths. Beijing admitted last week that it has become 'impossible' to track the scale of the outbreak following the end of mandatory mass testing.

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