Doctors in China say they are being discouraged from writing Covid-19 as the cause of death for patients, especially if the patient has an underlying disease.
With the meteoric rise in China's Covid cases in recent weeks and a dearth of Covid data emanating from the country, questions have been raised about the actual numbers of cases in relation to official Chinese figures presented to the world.
The head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission (NHC) said that between December 8 and January 12, the number of Covid-related deaths in China totalled 59,938.