After a high-ranking health official stated that the vast majority of the population had already been infected, China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related hospital deaths between January 13 and 19.
China reported nearly 60,000 Covid deaths in hospitals in just over a month, but official data has been widely questioned since Beijing abruptly eliminated anti-virus controls last month. The death toll was announced a week later.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China reported that over the course of the outbreak, 681 hospitalized patients died of respiratory failure brought on by an infection with the coronavirus, and 11,977 patients died of a combination of other illnesses and an infection.
None of the figures include deaths at home.
An independent forecasting firm called Airfinity has predicted that during the Lunar New Year holiday, there will be approximately 36,000 daily Covid deaths in China.
Additionally, the company estimates that the disease has claimed the lives of over 600,000 people in China since the country ended its zero-Covid policy in December.
Guo Yanhong, a representative of the National Health Commission, stated at a news conference on Thursday that China has passed the peak period for Covid patients in fever clinics, ERs, and critical care units.
Fears of new outbreaks have been raised as tens of millions of people have traveled across the country in recent days to spend the long-awaited Lunar New Year with their families.
One of the world's largest mass movements of people will take place this month and into February, according to China's transportation authorities, with more than two billion trips anticipated.
On Wednesday, President Xi Jinping expressed concern regarding the virus's spread in rural China, where many people do not have access to medical care.
However, due to the fact that nearly 80% of the population had already been infected with the virus, a high-ranking health official stated that China would not experience a second wave of infections in the months following the festive migration.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the CDC, stated in a Saturday post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform, "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 approximately 80% of the people in the country."
"The possibility of... a second wave of the epidemic across the country in the short term, for example, in the next two to three months is very small."
The first coronavirus infections were first reported in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China. On Saturday night, residents celebrated the start of the Year of the Rabbit with fireworks, flowers, and tributes to those whose loved ones were killed by the virus.