Rome, April 17 (NationPress) The estimated Covid-19 mortality rate in China ranges from 1.44 million to 2.56 million excess deaths among individuals aged over 65. These alarming figures, which align with independent research, far exceed the official death toll, according to a recent report.

“China operated under a significant health crisis of its own making for three years. The Zero Covid policy included mass testing, digital monitoring, quarantines that impacted entire apartment complexes, and stringent lockdowns that rendered other countries' measures seemingly mild. This strategy was touted as a testament to the state's discipline and strength. Initially, it proved effective. While many nations encountered multiple infection waves, China successfully kept the virus at bay through its strict regulations: a mere cough could lead to an entire neighborhood being isolated,” detailed a report from the Italy-based online publication ‘Bitter Winter’.

“However, by late 2022, this strategy began to falter. The Omicron variant, which viewed lockdowns as a minor obstacle, breached the defenses,” it added.

The report noted that after enduring months of increasingly “bizarre restrictions,” public discontent in China erupted into protests not witnessed since 1989, with demonstrators demanding an end to the lockdowns and some even “daring to call for” the resignation of President Xi Jinping.

Within days, the Chinese government implemented one of the swiftest policy shifts in its recent public health history, officially terminating the Zero Covid approach on December 7, 2022, which Xi framed as his personal triumph over the virus.

However, what followed was anything but a victory; a significant surge in infections overwhelmed China's healthcare system, with pharmacies depleting their stocks of fever reducers within hours, hospitals overflowing, and antiviral medications becoming scarce.

Furthermore, it highlighted that during the last week of 2022, deaths among elites spiked to over ten times the pre-pandemic average. Weekly mortality rates peaked at 1,030 percent above normal, subsequently decreasing to 680 percent the following week, returning to baseline by February 2023.

Although this catastrophic scenario lasted less than five weeks, the repercussions were profound, with annual mortality rates rising by 19 percent in 2022 and 24 percent in 2023.

The report concluded, “The tragedy lies not in China's reopening per se. It was the abruptness of the decision, as if flipping a switch, anticipating a virus that had been kept at bay for three long years to pause while the system adapted. Xi Jinping proclaimed victory, yet the obituary pages painted a different narrative—not in slogans, but in names, dates, and the quiet truths of loss.”