China said on Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in the hospital since it abandoned its "zero-COVID" policy last month, a huge increase from previously reported figures that follows global criticism of the country's coronavirus data.
In early December, Beijing abruptly dismantled its strict three-year anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns after widespread protests in late November, and cases have surged since then across the nation of 1.4 billion.
A health official said on Saturday that COVID fever and emergency hospitalizations had peaked and the number of hospitalized patients was continuing to decline.