About 9,000 people die each day in China from COVID-19, according to an estimate by Airfinity, a British health data company, cited by Reuters.

Infections with the coronavirus began to spread again in China in November, but there has been an explosive increase this month after Beijing abandoned its infamous “zero Covid” strategy following widespread protests by people in major cities against strict restrictions.

According to Arifinity’s statistical models, the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in China since December 1 has reached 100,000 and the number of infections has reached 18.6 million.

China has also recently moved away from routinely testing the population with PCR tests and publishing data on asymptomatic cases, with Airfinity using data published by Chinese provinces before the new policy in its modeling.

According to the British company, the number of coronavirus infections will reach a plateau on January 13 next year, with 3.7 million cases of COVID-19 every day, and deaths will reach a peak of 25,000 on the day of January 23.

Estimates suggest a huge number of deaths from Covid in China

By comparison, Chinese authorities have announced just 10 deaths from COVID-19 since Dec. 7, when they lifted restrictions, saying they define a death from the coronavirus as death caused by respiratory arrest directly caused by Covid.

Chinese authorities do not count what they believe are deaths caused by other diseases and conditions, even if the deceased tested positive for the coronavirus.

China officially claims that since the outbreak of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan, the country has recorded only 5,246 deaths from COVID-19. But Airfinity expects 1.7 million deaths in China by the end of April.

Another estimate by infectious disease scientists at the University of Hong Kong earlier in December predicted nearly a million deaths from COVID-19 in China in December and January alone.

Among the main challenges are China’s large number of vulnerable people, the use of less effective vaccines and low vaccination coverage among people over 80, who are at the highest risk of serious disease.

Among EU member states, Italy has already announced the resumption of mandatory coronavirus testing for all people arriving from China, and the European Commission is convening a meeting to discuss a “coordinated approach” to the situation.