China’s eastern Zhejiang Province saw a spike in cremations in the first quarter, official data showed. China observers believe the provincial data indicates that the actual COVID-19 death toll in the country could be much higher than what the leadership in Beijing had reported.
Due to Chinese authorities’ past record of underreporting infections and covering up information, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the current outbreak.
On July 13, the Zhejiang provincial department of civil affairs published data on its website, showing that cremations rose 72 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2022. Around 171,000 bodies were reportedly cremated during this period, compared to 99,000 and 93,000 in the first quarters of 2022 and 2021, respectively.Soon after the data was published, it was taken down by authorities. Moreover, online discussions and related comments were also removed from various Chinese platforms.
