The Chinese health official said that the government counts the deaths only from pneumonia or respiratory failure, a shocking revelation to the world as this way of defining deaths from Covid will limit the number of casualties being reported as cases should increase after easing of the pandemic-related restrictions.
China has always been conservative when it counts illnesses, whether the flu or Covid-19, which most countries, such as the United States, count any deaths in which Covid-19 is a factor as death by Covid.
On Wednesday, the official reported no new deaths from Covid-19 and removed one death from its overall counts, which lowered the total to 5,241, according to the National Health Commission and did not explain why it was removed.
The information of the officially recorded Covid-19 deaths comes as cases have increased across the country due to the relaxing of restrictions. The overall picture of the spread remains unclear as China has stopped requiring daily PCR tests and the people who live in China are testing at home.
