China said more than 12,600 people died of COVID-19-related causes in the week leading up to the Lunar New Year holidays, releasing more data on fatalities after the World Health Organization urged it to do so.
There were 12,658 COVID-19-linked deaths at hospitals between Jan. 13-19, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement dated Saturday. The country reported 59,938 such deaths between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12.
China’s sudden dismantling of "zero-Covid" restrictions in December meant hundreds of millions of people headed home for the Lunar New Year holiday for the first time since 2019. The crush of travel risks supercharging the world’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, spreading it to every corner of the country.
President Xi Jinping singled out COVID-19’s rural spread in a nationwide video address he held before the holiday, saying he’s especially concerned about efforts to battle COVID-19 in the countryside. Health experts are worried the virus could ravage the vulnerable in villages with sparse health care infrastructure, creating worse outcomes than the outbreaks that have already strained hospitals, overwhelmed crematoriums and crippled the nation’s megacities.
There were 471,739 COVID-19-related patients in hospitals nationwide on Jan. 19, including 51,683 in critical condition.