China reports 45 deaths of COVID-19 in September

China reported 45 deaths of COVID-19 nationwide in September including one who died of respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus and 44 people who died due to the combination of COVID-19 and other underlying diseases.

Statistics from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese CDC) show that 11,629 local COVID-19 cases were reported across the country between September 1 and 30. Genome sequencing of all the cases showed they were Omicron variants of 96 lineages. The top three variants include the XBB.1.9, XBB.1.22 and XBB.1.16.

In the same month, diagnosis and treatment volume at fever clinics across the country increased from 116,000 cases on September 1 and peaked at 177,000 cases on September 18. After that, the number dropped to 141,000 on September 30.

The proportion of influenza-like cases at the sentinel hospitals across the country rose from 3.4 percent from early September to 4.6 percent in mid-September and slightly dropped to 4.5 percent in late-September.

Positive rate of COVID-19 in influenza-like cases decreased from 18.6 percent between August 28 and September 3 to 10.5 percent between September 25 and October 1.