January 26, 2022, 11:18am
China's health authorities have gone a full year without reporting a single death from Covid-19 despite facing sporadic outbreaks across parts of the country.
Chinese police officers wearing masks stand in front of the Tiananmen Gate.
According to the National Health Commission of China, the country has reported 4,636 deaths from Covid-19 since the beginning of the Pandemic, making it one of the lowest rates of deaths in the world.
The last Covid-19 death was one year ago in the northeastern province of Jinlin.
More than 16,000 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in China in the last year, most of which were linked to the delta variant of the virus.
The official data from the WHO pegs China's death toll at 5,700, including 895 new deaths since January 2021, but this includes deaths that have taken place in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
China is one of the few countries that is still trying to eliminate the transmission of the virus inside the country.
China is one of the most highly inoculated nations in the world, with 86.6% of its population fully vaccined. Concerns have been raised about the efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines.
China's zero-mortality number remains an outlier, despite the fact that other countries like New Zealand have attempted a similar strategy.
0.35. The total number of deaths per 100,000 people that China has reported since the start of the Pandemic has been less than any other country in the world. New Zealand has reported 1.06 deaths per 100,000 people, and the U.S. has reported 263.82 deaths per 100,000 people.
Questions have been raised about the accuracy of China's Covid-19 data. The White House was warned by the Central Intelligence Agency that China was exaggerating its infections. An analysis by The Economist shows that there have been over 790,000 excess deaths in China since the start of the Pandemic. At least ten people who reported on China's handling of the virus have been arrested.
Some have argued that China's early detection of cases might help it prevent Covid-19 deaths. An unnamed doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital told ABC that other countries don't have the same ability to do Covid screening as China. It means that infections are detected at a very early stage.
China has stuck by its zero-tolerance strategy towards Covid-19 despite the emergence of the highly infectious omicron variant within its borders. In areas where local transmission of the virus is detected, swift lockdowns are used followed by mass testing of the affected population. Australia and New Zealand had a zero- Covid approach that was undone by the arrival of the delta variant, but China has more stringent measures in place that have allowed it to control the more infectious variant as well. China's zero-covid approach could be challenged by evidence that omicron hobble the effectiveness of its Sinovac vaccine. The success of China's approach may make it harder for the country to exit the epidemic as it is expected to become endemic.
The upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing will pose the biggest challenge to China's zero-covid approach due to the arrival of several foreign athletes. Beijing has created a closed loop system that will completely separate the participants and organizers of the games from the rest of the country. Athletes who are vaccinated will enter the closed loop immediately, while unvaccinated individuals will have to serve a 21-day quark. Dedicated transport, housing and training facilities will be included in the system. It's not clear how China will handle a possible Covid outbreak inside the Olympics bubble.
The success of China's virus could make exit strategy harder.
The true death toll of the Pandemic is not known.
The true death toll is millions more than the official count.
Live updates on the coronaviruses.
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