China has reported its first deaths of Covid-19 patients in nearly six months as the country struggles to contain a surge in cases across multiple cities that’s testing the limits of its tough zero-Covid strategy.
On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported two deaths of Covid-19 patients in Beijing for Sunday, following the death of an 87-year-old man in the capital on Saturday. It comes as the country faces a surge of cases, with 26,824 new infections reported on Sunday, according to the National Health Commission – the highest daily number since mid-April and the sixth consecutive day over 20,000.
Before this weekend, China’s most recent Covid-19 related death was on May 26 in Shanghai, which was locked down for two months until June over a major outbreak. China is the world’s last major economy still enforcing strict zero-Covid measures, which aim to stamp out chains of transmission through border restrictions, mass testing, extensive quarantines, and snap lockdowns on neighborhoods or entire cities – sometimes for months on end.