COVID-19-related outbreaks have not subsided in China, although the regime lifted the strict zero-COVID policy last December. Children’s hospitals in China are flooded with sick patients, and doctors indicated that along with COVID-19, there’s also widespread Influenza A, and Mycoplasma pneumonia, according to recent Chinese media reports.
The exact death toll in China over the three-year pandemic zero-COVID lockdown policy has remained a mystery.
A number of Chinese people who fled China recently have shared their accounts during the pandemic. They described the number of people who died in China as “unprecedentedly huge.”
Zhang Yonghong, from south-central Hunan Province, fled to the United States in May. He recalled that in a village near his neighborhood in Yongzhou City, as many as seven or eight villagers died each day last December.
“I have never heard so many deaths in a day in my life,” Mr. Zhang said, adding that nearly everyone had been infected.
According to local customs, mourning halls were set outside beside their homes. It became a norm that each street was lined with several mourning halls, according to Mr. Zhang.
“There were mourning halls, wreaths, and coffins on the roadside within a few steps of the street. It’s unprecedented,” said Mr. Zhang.
The funeral rituals were simplified because there were too many to handle, and the deceased were buried without any formality, Mr. Zhang explained.
Mr. Zhang’s sister, Zhang Yan added, “There was mournful music every day, everywhere.”
She said the service fees were doubled at the time, but the funeral homes were fully booked.
He explained that a close friend of his has operated a funeral home for more than 20 years. The friend, who monopolized the local funeral industry, told him that the deaths were so many that he could not find enough workers to take care of the workload.
Massive Deaths
She said there were families with more than one deceased. She took a neighboring town family of three generations as an example. “The grandpa died, followed by the father, and then the grandson,” said Ms. Zhang.She took a neighbor who worked as a cook for the families holding the funeral services from her apartment complex as another example.
“The charge was raised to 300 yuan ($41) a day, and she couldn’t find a break,” Ms. Zhang said, and the regular pay for a funeral worker was 180 yuan ($25) a day.
In the rural area, the family would also host a dining event after the funeral service is done.
Zhang Dongpeng, a Henan native, just fled China and made it to the United States in September. He recalled the long queues at the hospital at the beginning of the year.
He said that even the corridors were full of people, “What’s even worse is that the coffins were all sold out, and they had to be ordered. There was none in stock.”
He explained that many fled China after experiencing the cruelty of the zero-COVID pandemic policy for the past three years.
He said that the CCP hid the pandemic from the people; the massive deaths, the strict zero-COVID policy, and the lack of respect for human life; there’s depression everywhere in China, and young people cannot find jobs.
“There is no hope in China,” he said, and people can only “vote with their feet” and try to find ways to leave China.
