A new US study says that China’s decisions to abruptly call off its restriction regime for COVID-19 could have led to nearly 2 million excess deaths in just two months that followed. The study has been done by the federally funded Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. Sample of mortality data for the report was taken from some universities in China and internet searches. It found that between December 2022 and January 2023, an estimated 1.87 million excess deaths occured from all causes among people above 30. The trend was observed in all provinces in mainland China.
Untill December 2022, China followed zero-COVID policy including mass-testing and stringent and persistent quarantine lockdowns. The end of policy led to a massive surge in hospitalisations and deaths that health experts say were largely unreported by the government.
The study was published on Thursday in JAMA Network Open.
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