China said its COVID-related death toll topped more than 12,600 in the week before the Lunar New Year holiday, while a top health official suggested more than 1.1 billion people had been infected since virus controls were abruptly dismantled late last year.
There were 12,658 COVID-linked deaths at hospitals between Jan. 13-19, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement dated Saturday. A week earlier, the country reported 59,938 such deaths for the period Dec. 8-Jan. 12.
The data comes after China came under fire for dramatically narrowing its definition of a COVID-19 death and halting daily caseload reports. The World Health Organization has urged Beijing to release more detailed information on the country’s COVID-19 situation as the virus spreads rapidly throughout China after the sudden lifting of extensive "COVID-zero" restrictions.
