Funeral homes overwhelmed, bodies seen? China may be covering Covid deaths

The number of people dying due to Covid in Beijing is rising, according to media reports, despite China not reporting a fatality from the virus for two weeks. Beijing is is in the grip of its worst Covid wave yet as officials nationwide abruptly abandoned stringent curbs that have kept the virus at bay for the past three years.

Staff at a Beijing crematorium told the Financial Times that they cremated the bodies of at least 30 Covid victims on Wednesday, while a relative of one of the dead said their family member had been infected with the virus, Associated Press reported. Reuters also reported that funeral homes in Beijing being overwhelmed. Covid deaths are being prioritized for cremation, the employee was reported to have said. FT reporters also saw body bags at a hospital designated for virus patients.

Still, China hasn’t recorded a death from Covid since December 4, when two were lodged, in Sichuan and Shandong province. The last official Covid fatality reported for Beijing was recorded on November 2.

Earlier, local media reported this week that two former Chinese state media journalists died in the capital Beijing in recent days due to Covid-19. Yang Lianghua, a former People’s Daily reporter, died on December 15, aged 74, while Zhou Zhichun, a former China Youth Daily editor, died on December 8, aged 77, according to financial magazine Caixin. However, China’s national health authority did not report any official Covid deaths.

This also comes as China last week halted reporting of asymptomatic cases, which typically made up the bulk of the infection tally. Earlier, the country dismantled the once ubiquitous PCR testing apparatus and increased used of rapid antigen kits which rendered official data virtually meaningless.

China has reported just 5,235 Covid deaths since the pandemic started in late 2019, with the first known cases in Wuhan. Covid deaths in China would undermine the government’s narrative that it has handled the virus better than other countries, and that it chose this moment to pivot on scientific grounds.