Updates on China’s COVID Situation (January 12, 2023): Continued Cover-up by the Communist Regime

(Minghui.org) The COVID situation is still very serious in China. Hospitals and crematories are overwhelmed while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to cover up the infection and death data. 

Shanghai 

One video received by RFA (Radio Free Asia) about Changhai Hospital in Shanghai showed the hospital lobby filled with hospital beds and packed with patients. When an RFA reporter followed this up on January 10, the hospital said there had been no improvement. 

Local residents said Shanghai hospitals have all been overburdened. A resident surnamed Lin told RFA that he and his family felt extremely uncomfortable after getting COVID. “It is not as mild as the media claims,” he explained. Zhang Wei, a research fellow from Shanghai Library, died of COVID on January 11. 

Beijing

According to a VOA (Voice of America) report on January 11, one Beijing native currently living in the United States said he lost five relatives in the past 8 days, including his father, father-in-law, and paternal grandmother. Among the deceased, only his grandma – who looked after him since childhood – and his wife’s uncle were diagnosed with COVID. The other three died before they got a chance to test for the virus. 

“With so many loved ones passing away like this, I really cannot accept it,” he said to VOA. But on the same day, briefing from China CDC announced “No new [COVID] deaths.”

Jiangsu Province

Wu, a resident of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, told The Epoch Times on January 11 that her mother got infected with COVID at a senior center in Suzhou City and was asked to move to a different place. The woman died before the transfer. 

Wu said she and another family member each donned full-body protective gear to visit her mother on January 1. Her mother had already lost consciousness so they gave consent to the senior center to transfer her to a hospital since the former could no longer take care of her. “We agreed. But after the oxygen and intravenous injection were stopped, my mother died immediately,” she explained. “The death certificate did not mention COVID and just stated natural death.”

Shandong Province

The COVID situation in Qingdao City of Shandong Province has remained severe, with an estimated 90% of local residents infected and the death toll rising quickly. One witness said the Crematory of Laixi (a county-level city under the administration of Qingdao) cremated 79 bodies on December 31, 2022. Another resident said after her relative died five days ago and was transferred to another crematory, the family was told to wait at least 5 days before cremation would be done. 

Because of the high number of deaths in Qingdao metro area, the bodies were often transported to Laixi (25 kilometers away) or Pingdu (110 kilometers away) for cremation. The wife of a township deputy head in Laixi was pregnant with a second baby, so she could not take fever medicine after catching COVID. She and her unborn baby later died. The blood banks of hospitals in Qingdao are running low. There are few vehicles on the street now and most government agencies and businesses have been shut down because too many of their employees have been infected. 

High-ranking Officials and Celebrities Die of COVID

More high-ranking officials and celebrities have recently died of COVID. They include Qi Shan (former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, deputy secretary of the party group), Hu Xuming (former secretary of the party group and chief prosecutor of the Procuratorate of Ningxia), Jiang Xuefu (retired major general, former commander of the 25th Experimental Training Base), and Feng Binglin (former deputy general manager of China State Shipbuilding Corporation). 

Fu Jianhua, a retired officer at Wuhan Police Department in Hubei Province, died of COVID on January 9. 

Lai Xinmin, Vice Chair for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, died at 58 on January 7. It was said that Lai had been infected with COVID. After testing negative six days after being infected, he returned to work, only to experience discomfort again and soon pass away. Wang Tao, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee for the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, died of COVID at 52. 

Underreported Deaths

WHO (the World Health Organization) announced on January 11 that Chinese authorities still heavily underreport the number of COVID deaths. The agency is thus unable to obtain enough information to evaluate the situation. 

British health data firm Airfinity estimates that China currently has 2.99 million new COVID cases per day and a daily death toll of 18,900. The firm also estimated that the total number of people to be infected in China since December 1 is 44.3 million with 269,400 deaths. The firm predicted a first wave peak on January 13 when 3.7 million people would be infected. In the following 10 days, deaths would likely be 25,000, bringing the cumulative death count to 584,000 since the CCP lifted the zero-COVID policy on December 7, 2022.