China's coronavirus death toll spikes after country drops 'zero-covid' policy
The death toll in the latest COVID-19 surge in China's capital Beijing has risen dramatically, as feverish clinic patients and an increase in the funeral business point to a widening outbreak after an easing of strict virus containment regulations.
Unofficial reports suggest a widespread wave of new coronavirus cases, and relatives of victims and people who work in the funeral business said deaths tied to COVID-19 were increasing.
Those people spoke on condition of not being identified for fear of retribution, as the official policy and the direction of the latest outbreak remain cloaked in uncertainty and confusion.
The National Health Commission on Tuesday said five newly recorded fatalities, all in Beijing, had taken the country's total death toll to 5,242.
The number is relatively low by global standards but potentially set to increase substantially following moves by the government to step away from the "zero-COVID" policy of lockdowns, quarantines and compulsory testing that has staggered the economy and prompted rare anti-government protests.
With people testing and recuperating at home, China has said it is no longer possible to keep an accurate count of new case numbers, making it substantially more difficult to gauge the state of the current wave of infection and its direction.
Some scientific models have estimated numbers will rise with an eventual death toll in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
Other epidemiologists have pointed to the virus' multiplying so fast that the number of PCR tests is not showing the entire picture, with the increase in cases surpassing what can be shown using daily updates.
China is trying to persuade reluctant seniors and others at risk to get vaccinated, apparently with only moderate
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