Amidst warnings that China could see a surge in Covid cases in the coming days, several videos and pictures going viral on social media show bodies piling up in several cities across the country. These videos have come to the fore at a time when China has stopped reporting Covid deaths. The last data made public by the country was on 4 December.
The Chinese people recently protested against the zero-covid policy, which forced the authorities to cancel measures taken to control the disease. However, the move brought Beijing to the doorstep of its most significant Covid outbreak in the last 3 years.
According to official figures, Beijing last saw a death toll from COVID-19, which was seeing thousands of COVID-positive cases before the zero-COVID policy was rescinded. However, social media accounts within the country paint a completely different picture. ,
In another controversial decision, the country also scrapped the once common polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing equipment and instead used rapid antigen kits which are believed to be a bit inaccurate.
China has officially reported only 5,235 Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, The Straits Times reported. It became an occasion for Chinese President Xi Jinping to taunt the United States, which had reported more than a million deaths in its official figures.
This would help the authorities to project an image that they have handled the spread of the disease well. However, the low vaccination rates for older people in China show a different picture compared to countries that were able to open up after tackling COVID-19.