China reports COVID-19 deaths despite restrictions easing

China has reported two COVID-19 related deaths in Beijing, but questions remain over the true number of casualties since restrictions were eased.

 
The two were the first to be reported by the National Health Commission since early December, days before Beijing announced that it was lifting curbs.

A hashtag on the two reported COVID deaths quickly became the top trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The low number of deaths since curbs were lifted is inconsistent with the experience of other countries after similar moves.

Officially China has suffered just over 5,000 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, including the latest two fatalities.