Covid Deaths on Rise in China, Crematorium Overwhelmed with Bodies

China, Dec 20, 2022: COVID deaths are once again creating havoc in China, with more and more crematoriums getting overflowed with funeral requests.

As per local media reports, Police and security guards have been stationed outside Beijing crematoriums which has been reportedly designated to handle Covid fatalities.

Journalists were pushed to the back of the Beijing Dongjiao Funeral Parlor’s parking lot on Monday, as a bunch of about a dozen black minivans entered the site on Beijing’s eastern outskirts, used to prepare bodies for cremation.

The vans were reportedly dropping off bodies and were surrounded at by what seemed to be mourners or relatives.

The crematorium has attracted scrutiny after workers told foreign media that they were overwhelmed with bodies since China eased most Covid restrictions and Beijing witnessed a surge in cases as a result.

That goes against the official virus death count, which saw just two Covid fatalities recorded for Beijing this weekend, the first in almost a month.

The disparity comes as China sets out to completely pivot away from its stringent Covid Zero policy, which has had a negative effect on the economy all year and has also led to popular unrest.

After labelling Covid as a lethal threat the population needed to be protected from for most of the pandemic, officials are now saying it’s not dangerous, with one top adviser saying omicron is similar to a “cold.”

Other countries that have made a similar transition from containing Covid to living with it, like Singapore and New Zealand, also witnessed much bigger increases in deaths when they reopened, and they had higher vaccination rates, especially among the elderly. China’s booster rate for those over 80 is just 40%.