The National Health Commission hasn’t yet revealed the vaccination status of the deceased man. While China has an overall vaccination rate of more than 92 per cent having received at least one dose, that number is considerably lower among the elderly — particularly those over age 80 — where it falls to just 65 per cent.
The less vaccinations among the elderly is why China has mostly kept its borders closed and has stuck with its zero-Covid policy, that has impacted normal lives, provoking anger among the public. China says its tough approach has paid off in much lower numbers of cases and deaths than in other countries, such as the United States.
With this approach, China has been able to contain the spread of the virus. Having a population of 1.4 billion, China has officially registered just 286, 197 infections since the virus was detected in Wuhan in late 2019. That compares to 98.3 million cases and 1 million deaths for the U.S., with its population of 331.9 million, since the virus first appeared there in 2020.
China's figures have come under question, however, based on the ruling Communist Party's long-established reputation for manipulating statistics, the lack of outside scrutiny and a highly subjective criteria for determining cause of death.
Despite being the first country to report the first case of Covid-19, China has defied advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) to adopt a more targeted prevention strategy. The country has also resisted investigation into the origin of the virus.
(With agency inputs)
