five years ago, China announced the very first death officially linked to the virus

The fifth anniversary of first death known linked to the Covid-19 virus went unnoticed in China on Saturday January 11, 2025, without official commemoration in a country where the pandemic remains a taboo subject.

On Saturday, Beijing’s tightly controlled official media did not no official commemoration. The ruling Communist Party has locked down public debate and avoided any consideration of draconian restrictions since radically abandoning them at the end of 2022.

Seven million deaths attributed to Covid-19

Remember: On January 11, 2020, health authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan announced that a 61 year old man had died from complications of pneumonia caused by a previously unknown virus.

The revelation came after health authorities reported dozens of infections over the course of several weeks with the pathogen later called SARS-CoV-2 and considered the cause of Covid-19 disease.

She then triggered a global pandemic which, to date, has killed more than seven million people and profoundly changed lifestyles around the world, including in China.

China criticized for its lack of transparency

Little information was given on the identity of the first victim of Covidexcept that she assiduously frequented a seafood market in Wuhan where the virus would have circulated during the initial epidemic.

In the days following his death, other countries reported their first cases of the disease, showing that official efforts to contain its spread had failed.

China was subsequently criticized by Western governments for allegedly concealed transmission early onset of the virus and erased evidence of its originsalthough Beijing has vehemently maintained that it acted decisively and with complete transparency.

According to the WHO, China has officially reported nearly 100 million Covid cases and 122,000 deaths to date, although the true number will likely never be known.

Source: © 2025 AFP

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.