China announces ‘victory’ over Covid-19

However, there is no precise picture of the massive corona wave in China. At the beginning of December, the government abruptly abandoned its strict zero-Covid strategy with lockdowns, forced quarantines and mass tests. Health officials estimated that more than a billion people have been infected since then.

The total number of dead was not published, while crematoria barely kept up to cremate the victims. The propaganda also downplayed the extent. Only 83,150 deaths in hospitals were officially reported between the beginning of December and the beginning of February, where only a small proportion of people usually die in China anyway. According to reports, doctors were also instructed not to certify Covid-19 as the cause of death.