Officials in China reported late Wednesday that the daily death toll from Covid-19 has dropped by nearly 80% since the beginning of January, signaling that the country’s unprecedented infection rise may be leveling off.
In critical condition Covid-19 cases in China are down 72% from their peak earlier this month, while daily fatalities among Covid-19 patients in hospitals are down 79%.
The figures, released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come after a renowned government scientist claimed over the weekend that 80% of China’s 1.4 billion people were already infected, making the possibility of a big Covid-19 rebound over the next two or three months remote.
Beijing’s abrupt end to its zero-Covid policy last month triggered a wave of virus outbreaks across the world’s most populated nation.
Given China’s strict definition of a Covid death and government estimates that large segments of the population have been infected, the numbers are likely to grossly understate the exact toll.
According to the CDC, the number of critically ill patients in China reached a high of 128,000 on January 4 before gradually declining to 36,000 on January 23.
Similarly, the daily average number of hospital deaths peaked at 4,273 on January 4 and dropped to 896 by January 23. Fever clinic visits decreased 96.2%, from 2.867 million on December 22 to 110,000 on January 23.
