BEJING: China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population has already been infected by the virus.
China a week earlier said nearly 60,000 people had died with Covid in hospitals as of January 12, but there has been widespread skepticism over official data since Beijing abruptly axed anti-virus controls last month.
China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Saturday that 681 hospitalized patients had died of respiratory failure caused by coronavirus infection, and 11,977 had died of other diseases combined with an infection over the period.
The figures do not include those who died from the virus at home.
Airfinity, an independent forecasting firm, has estimated daily Covid deaths in China will peak at around 36,000 over the Lunar New Year holiday.
The firm also estimated that more than 600,000 people have died from the disease since China abandoned the zero-Covid policy in December.
Tens of millions of people have traveled across the country in recent days for long-awaited reunions with families to mark the biggest holiday in the lunar calendar that fell on Sunday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks.
But a top health official said China will not experience a second wave of covid infections in the next two to three months after millions return to villages to mark the Lunar New Year because nearly 80 percent of the population has already been infected by the virus.
“Although a large number of people traveling during the Spring Festival may promote the spread of the epidemic to a certain extent... the current wave of epidemic has already infected about 80 percent of the people in the country,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform on Saturday.
“In the short term, for example, in the next two to three months, the possibility of... a second wave of the epidemic across the country is very small.”
China’s transport authorities have predicted that more than two billion trips will be made this month into February in one of the world’s largest mass movements of people.
China reports nearly 13,000 Covid deaths over last week
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China reports nearly 13,000 Covid deaths over last week
Locals in Niger say ‘terrorists’ killed 25 near Mali
- “Twenty-five self-defense militia fell on Thursday in terrorist ambushes,” a former mayor said
- The surrounding Tillaberi region is an area of operations of the Sahel branch of the Daesh militant group
ABIDJAN: Local sources in western Niger said “terrorists” killed 25 members of a militia in several villages near the Mali border.
“Twenty-five self-defense militia fell on Thursday in terrorist ambushes,” a former mayor in the commune of Anzourou told AFP — a toll confirmed by a leader from a local civil association.
“There were 25 young self-defense fighters who lost their lives and three others who were wounded and evacuated” to hospitals in Tillaberi town and Niamey, the latter source said.
The surrounding Tillaberi region is an area of operations of the Sahel branch of the Daesh militant group.
Conflict-monitoring NGO ACLED said that in 2025 Tillaberi became the deadliest region in the central Sahel, with more than 1,200 deaths recorded.
It blamed the violence mainly on the Daesh in the Sahel group, followed by the Nigerien army and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
The association source said the victims came from four neighboring villages — Doukou Makani, Doukou Djinde, Doukou Saraou and Doukou Koirategui.
The Anzourou district is made up of around 50 villages and hamlets in Tillaberi, which borders near the area between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, long the scene of deadly militant attacks.
Niger has been run by a military junta since a coup in July 2023.
For the last decade, the country has been blighted by deadly militant attacks. Since the beginning of the year, there have been nearly 2,000 deaths, according to ACLED.
With the Nigerien army struggling to contain the attacks, it has tolerated the creation of self-defense militias by villagers, leading to bloody clashes with militants.
In December last year, the military regime in Niamey announced a “general mobilization” and the “requisition” of people and property to better fight the Islamists.
Niger has created a 6,000-strong joint force with Mali and Burkina Faso, countries also run by the military and facing militant violence.
