China's health authorities on Saturday reported almost 60,000 COVID-related deaths in just over a month, the first major death toll released since the lifting of its COVID restrictions in early December.
There were a total of 59,938 COVID-related deaths between December 8, 2022 and January 12 this year, Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission, told a press conference on Saturday.
Of those fatalities, 5,503 were caused by respiratory failure due to the COVID, with the remainder resulting from a combination of underlying and other diseases, she said.
The average age of the dead is 80.3, with 90.1 percent of them over 65 years old and 56.5 percent over 80. Over 90 percent of the deaths had underlying diseases such as cardivovascular diseases, late-stage tumors, cerebral vascular diseases, or respiratory diseases, Jiao stressed.
Jiao said China attributes COVID-related deaths to two causes, one for respiratory failure due to coronavirus infection and the other for underlying diseases combined with COVID infection.
