Leaked Document from China’s National Health Commission Shows 248 Million Infected Cases in First 3 Weeks of December; Research Predicts 5,000 Daily Deaths

(Minghui.org) Central News Agency reported from Beijing on December 22 that China’s National Health Commission (NHC) held a meeting the day before and that the meeting minutes leaked online depicted a bleak picture of the pandemic situation after the communist regime ended its zero-COVID policy. 

According to NHC’s meeting minutes, the agency estimated that about 248 million infected cases, representing 17.6% of China’s population, emerged between December 1 and 20. There were close to 37 million new cases on December 20 alone, and the daily tally kept increasing. Beijing registered the most positive cases, followed by Sichuan Province. Both places had more than 50% of their populations infected. Tianjin, Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Anhui, Gansu, and Hebei had infection rates between 20% and 50%. 

Ma Xiaowei, head of the NHC, said at the meeting that more cases are expected in both urban areas and countryside now that the zero-COVID policy has been lifted and the Spring Festival travel rush is about to begin in a few weeks. 

Worth noting was that the abovementioned figures were never officially reported.

Continued Cover-up

Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said on December 14 that China’s COVID cases had exploded in China long before the zero-COVID policy was ended. An interview with a Beijing official in the political and legal affairs system by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on December 19 showed the disease had long been out of control, even before the “white paper revolution” when citizens protested the draconian lockdown. “Actually, the virus was already ripping through the hospital ... and they weren’t allowing anyone to report these cases to higher levels of government,” explained the official in an RFA article titled “Beijing covered up COVID-19 outbreak that sparked current death wave: official.”

This official had a relative who tested positive and was “treated for a so-called urinary tract infection.” The relative eventually died. Even with connections, his family had to wait for five days before finding a cremation slot. In hospital emergency rooms in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, many elderly patients had no beds and they had to lie on the floor waiting for medical help. At clinics and pharmacies throughout China, there were long lines waiting to purchase fever and cold medicines. Those unable to get these medicines cried for help on the internet. 

A large number of high-ranking officials and renowned experts had died too. Liu Ji, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member and former Deputy Director of the National Sports Commission, died on December 19. Hu Jun, emeritus professor at Renmin University and “Marxist economist,” died on December 20. The deaths of current and retired professors at Beijing University and Tsinghua University have approached 40. 

The number of newly infected cases in Beijing and nearby Hebei Province has exceeded people’s imagination. A number of Beijing residents posted on the social media of Weibo that CT scans showed infected lungs in their relatives who tested positive. Such images, known as “white lungs,” were caused by white cloudy spots and fibrosis appeared in the lungs. This made people doubt the CCP’s claim that the Omicron variant only infected the upper respiratory tract, not lungs. 

A researcher surnamed Li from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Handan City, Hebei Province was interviewed by RFA on December 22. He said the sudden lift of lockdown nationwide without an exit plan would lead to cross-infection and accelerated mutation. Since the Delta variant still exists, it could infect the same cell together with the Omicron variant, generating new viruses that carry both genetic traits. He predicted the death rate could be higher than that in Hong Kong, Singapore, and other areas. 

Ming Pao in Hong Kong reported that 2,700 bodies were cremated in Beijing on December 17. But the CCP continued to hide those numbers and did not report any deaths until December 19, when the authorities reported two COVID deaths. 

Witness Testimonies

Some videos circulating online attested to the high death toll. One video was said to be taken at the mortuary of China-Japan Friendship Hospital. On the racks of the freezer were 19 bodies wrapped in yellow shrouds that would be sent to crematoriums. 

Chen, a resident of Tongzhou District in Beijing, told RFA on December 22 that the number of infected cases was extremely high in Beijing. Chen’s family of four were all infected. Almost all his friends and coworkers tested positive. In the past 20 days, there were long lines in front of all crematoriums in Beijing. Because the cremation was not quick enough, many crematorium vehicles were used to store corpses. As a result, families who lost their loved ones had to transport the bodies to the crematorium using private cars. 

One young woman in Beijing said in a video that her father was infected. They visited three hospitals, but could not receive treatments since all three places were fully packed. When she was finally able to find a spot, the doctor said her father’s symptoms were too severe to be admitted. “You can take a look yourself. There is hardly any place to stand here, let alone an empty bed,” explained the doctor. “You can go join the waiting line outside Chaoyang Hospital. That hospital is bigger – whenever someone dies, a bed would be vacated.”

5,000 Deaths Daily

Based on various indicators, British health data firm Airfinity estimated “more than 5,000 people are probably dying each day from COVID-19 in China,” reported Reuters in a December 22 article titled “China COVID deaths probably running above 5,000 per day - UK research firm Airfinity.”

The firm performed data modeling based on information from regional Chinese statistics. It also estimated the current daily infections in China are over a million. But the CCP continued to cover up the situation. Only 1,800 newly infected cases were reported over the past week with 7 deaths.

“Airfinity said its mortality risk analysis suggested between 1.3 to 2.1 million people could die in China's current COVID outbreak. Analyses by other modeling groups have also predicted as many as 2.1 million deaths,” wrote the Reuters news. 

News reports showed that a large number of medical professionals from Shandong, Hunan, and Jiangsu Provinces were recently sent to Beijing for emergency support. With the surging new cases throughout China, many netizens worry those provinces would need medical professionals to cover their own needs too.