China reports almost 60,000 COVID-related deaths

China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 COVID-related deaths since early December. The toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19 since Dec. 8, the National Health Commission announced.

The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775 since the disease was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. The average age of the dead is 80.3, and 90% of the deaths happened to people with underlying health conditions said a National Health Commission official. The daily number of people going to clinics peaked at 2.9 million on Dec. 23 and had fallen by 83% to 477,000 on Thursday.