Shanghai announces 3 COVID-19 deaths out of 25 million residents

Shanghai health officials said Monday that three COVID-19 patients have died, marking the first COVID-19 related deaths in the city since it’s citywide lockdown of 25 million residents last month.

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said the three deaths were all elderly patients at local hospitals – an 89-year old woman, a 91-year old woman, and a 91-year old man.

“The three grew gravely ill after entering the hospital,” they said in a statement on social media.

“They died after all-out efforts to save them proved ineffective.”

The three suffered from multiple underlying conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and high pressure, according to officials.

The report also said that the city registered 22,000 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday. Daily counts have remained over 20,000 for 11 days in a row.  

The tiny number of deaths has been met with skepticism from experts and observers, given that the lockdown of China’s financial capital is its largest since the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

“It appears that they've lost control of this [outbreak] in Shanghai. There's many more infections than what's being reported,” former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC last week, when Shanghai reported zero COVID-19 deaths.

"The data coming out of there is implausible. They claim… only one severe case and no deaths—we know that's not true."

Four million of its 25 million residents are over age 65, and vaccination rates among the elderly in China are low over fears of side effects. Current Chinese COVID-19 vaccines requires three shots to reach the same effectiveness as foreign mRNA vaccines, which the government has declined to approve.

The Wall Street Journal reported that patients were dying at some of the city’s elderly care facilities amid undeclared COVID-19 outbreaks. Reports about these have been censored on Chinese social media, but it interviewed staff and children of the deceased who confirmed the deaths.

The challenges of maintaining Beijing’s harsh zero-tolerance policies include a dwindling food supply and COVID-19  positive children  being separated from their parents.