From December 8 to January 12, deaths related to the virus in Chinese hospitals totaled 59,938.
China has reported nearly 60,000 deaths among COVID-affected people since early December following complaints that it failed to release data.
The toll from December 8 to Thursday consisted of 5,503 deaths from respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 deaths from other ailments combined with COVID-19, the National Health Commission announced on Saturday, adding that the “emergency peak” of its latest surge appears to be over.
The reported deaths linked to COVID-19 are said to have occurred in hospitals, leaving open the possibility that more people may have died at home.
The report will more than double China’s official number of deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 to 10,775 since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
China stopped reporting data on COVID-19 deaths and infections after abruptly lifting anti-virus controls in December despite a surge in infections that began in October and filled hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.
The World Health Organization and other governments appealed to China for information after reports by city and provincial governments suggested hundreds of millions of people in China may have contracted the virus.
The peak of the latest wave of infections appears to have passed, based on a decline in the number of patients visiting fever clinics, National Health Commission official Jiao Yahui said.
The daily number of people going to those clinics peaked at 2.9 million on Dec. 23 and fell 83 percent to 477,000 on Thursday, Jiao said.
While international health experts predicted at least one million COVID-related deaths this year, China previously reported just over 5,000 deaths since the pandemic began, one of the lowest death rates in the world.
Elderly population affected
The average age of people who have died since Dec. 8 is 80.3 years, and 90 percent are 65 and older, according to the Health Commission.
It said more than 90 percent of the people who died had cancer, heart or lung disease or kidney problems.
The United States, South Korea and other governments have imposed COVID-19 testing and other controls on people arriving from China since the surge in cases began last month.
Beijing retaliated on Wednesday by suspending new visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan.
China, the world’s most populous nation, kept its infection rate and deaths lower than those of the United States and many other countries at the height of the pandemic with a “zero COVID” strategy, which aimed to eliminate every case to isolate.
The policy has closed access to some cities, kept millions at home and sparked angry protests.
