British company says Covid deaths in China are accelerating to 9,000 deaths per day Reuters

Covid infections began spreading across China in November, and accelerated this month after Beijing loosened its tough policies against the disease, including regular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of its residents and publishing data on asymptomatic cases.

Airfinity said in a statement that the cumulative deaths in China since December 1 have likely reached 100,000, and the total number of infections has reached 18.6 million. The company says it uses modeling based on data from Chinese provinces before implementing recent changes to case reporting.

Airfinity expects Covid infections in China to first peak on January 13, with 3.7 million cases per day. This contrasts with the number of cases reported daily by health authorities after the PCR testing network was largely dismantled, as authorities shifted from preventing infections to treating them.

Airfinity forecasts that deaths will peak on January 23, at around 25,000 per day, with the cumulative death toll reaching 584,000 since December.

Health officials recently said they define a Covid death as a person dying of respiratory failure caused by Covid-19, excluding deaths from other diseases and conditions, even if the deceased tested positive for the virus.