China COVID-19 Deaths Hit 60,000 Since December

China is facing another COVID-19 death wave, reporting almost 60,000 fatalities following the country's termination of its zero-Covid policy in early December, a health official reported.

In a press conference on Saturday, Jiao Yahul, head of China's National Health Commission (NHC) medical affairs department, said that COVID-19-related deaths between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12 reached 59,938.

Of the total death toll, 5,503 died of respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 infections while 54,435 people were infected with the virus and other underlying diseases.

The report came after the Chinese government was criticized for allegedly under-representing its total COVID-19 death toll. The country only previously reported Covid patients who died of respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 — only 5,000 deaths as compared to experts' estimate of 1 million Covid-related deaths, according to a report by CNBC News.

Following China's announcement, WHO Director-General Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke with China's Health Minister Ma Xiaowei about the recent surge.

In a statement, the health organization said that Chinese officials shared information on outpatient clinics, hospitalizations, patients requiring emergency treatment and critical care and hospital deaths related to COVID-19 infection.

"WHO requested that this type of detailed information continue to be shared with us and the public," it said.

The organization said that the recent surge was caused by known sub-variants of Omicron with higher clinical impact on older people and those with underlying conditions.

The data, however, reportedly showed a decline in China's case numbers, hospitalizations and people requiring critical care. The organization noted that it requested a more detailed breakdown of data by province.

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the sharp increase in deaths announced on Saturday could be associated with China's Covid policy reversal.

"The sharp revision is an official response to international criticism of the lack of transparency and accuracy in China's reporting of Covid-related data," Huang said, as quoted by CNN.

"Given the still huge gap between the official count of Covid deaths and the international estimate, I don't think the revision will quell outside doubts on the government data."

Earlier, China announced its re-opening of borders after three years of strict travel restrictions and mass lockdowns.

The travel resumption prompted additional COVID-19 test requirements from people flying in from China to the United States, South Korea, India and Japan.