"China Reports Nearly 2 Million Excess Deaths in Two Months Following COVID-19 Restrictions Easing"

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA

A research report has been released stating that nearly 2 million 'excess deaths' occurred within two months after China eased COVID-19 restrictions last December.

On January 15th, the emergency room of a hospital in Shanghai, China, was filled with patients. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to major foreign media on the 24th (local time), the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA, reported in a study published in the international journal "JAMA Network Open," issued by the American Medical Association, that approximately 1.87 million excess deaths occurred among Chinese residents aged 30 and above between December last year and January this year. The research team used statistical analysis based on death data samples released by several Chinese universities, obituary articles, and data searched from Baidu, China's largest search engine.

'Excess deaths' refer to additional deaths exceeding the number expected to occur during a specific period. These are not included in the official COVID-19 death counts but may include deaths highly associated with the infection.

The figure of 1.87 million is significantly different from the approximately 80,000 COVID-19 deaths officially reported by Chinese authorities at the time. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that from December 8, when restrictions were eased, until February 9, 83,150 people died in hospitals due to COVID-19 infection. Additionally, 3,278 people died in the last week of January, and from then until February 23, a total of 4,295 people died from COVID-19 infection.

However, Western media, citing public health experts, estimate that COVID-19 deaths in China after easing restrictions may have reached between 1 million and 2 million. This estimate is based on cases where crematories in major cities such as Beijing operated 24 hours a day due to the surge in COVID-19 patients overwhelming the healthcare system, causing delays of several days for funerals.

Last month, the government of Zhejiang Province in China posted and then deleted the number of cremations for the first quarter of this year on its website. A captured screenshot of the webpage showed that over 170,000 cremations were conducted in Zhejiang Province during the first quarter, representing a 70% increase compared to the same period last year.

The US Radio Free Asia (RFA) projected that, based on Zhejiang Province's statistics, approximately 3.4 million cremations could have been conducted nationwide in the first quarter. It further explained that since Zhejiang Province, which accounts for about 5% of China's 1.4 billion population, has a cremation rate close to 100%, the cremation rate there closely reflects the actual death rate.