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China Reports Almost 60,000 COVID-related Deaths

People wear protective face shields enter the Beijing Railway Station as the annual Spring Festival travel rush starts, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
People wear protective face shields enter the Beijing Railway Station as the annual Spring Festival travel rush starts, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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China Reports Almost 60,000 COVID-related Deaths

People wear protective face shields enter the Beijing Railway Station as the annual Spring Festival travel rush starts, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
People wear protective face shields enter the Beijing Railway Station as the annual Spring Festival travel rush starts, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had COVID-19 since early December following complaints the government was failing to release data about the status of the pandemic.

The death toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19. The National Health Commission said those deaths occurred in hospitals, which left open the possibility more people also might have died at home.

The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775. The official toll stood at 5,272 on Jan. 8.

The Chinese government stopped reporting data on COVID-19 infections and deaths in early December after abruptly lifting anti-virus controls. The World Health Organization and other governments appealed to Beijing for more information amid a surge in infections.

Wen Daxiang, a Shanghai Health Commission official, said China would strengthen health monitoring and management of the high-risk population.

He added that China would bolster the supply of drugs and medical equipment, and beef up training of grassroots medical workers to combat COVID in rural regions.

Meanwhile, people in China are resuming travel ahead of the Lunar New Year, despite worries about infections.

The rapid business recovery is challenging airlines' ability to ensure safety, and great attention to pandemic-related risks is needed, said Song Zhiyong, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The industry needs to "fully understand the special nature, and complexity of the Spring Festival migration in 2023", Song said in a statement on Friday.

Since the Jan. 7 start of the annual migration, as Chinese return to their hometowns in preparation for the holiday set to begin on Jan. 21, flight passenger numbers stand at 63% of the 2019 figure before the pandemic, the aviation regulator said.

China re-opened its borders on Jan. 8 after having abruptly abandoned in December a strict anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns that had fueled historic nationwide protests in late November.

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US Homelessness Up 18% as Affordable Housing Remains out of Reach for Many People

The number of homeless people reflects the huge problem faced by the world's largest economy (AFP).
The number of homeless people reflects the huge problem faced by the world's largest economy (AFP).
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US Homelessness Up 18% as Affordable Housing Remains out of Reach for Many People

The number of homeless people reflects the huge problem faced by the world's largest economy (AFP).
The number of homeless people reflects the huge problem faced by the world's largest economy (AFP).

The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.
That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the US, with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.
“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement, adding that the focus should remain on “evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”
Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness — one of the areas that was most affected by the arrival of migrants in big cities. Family homelessness more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migrants including Denver, Chicago and New York City, according to HUD, while it rose less than 8% in the remaining 373 communities. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% jump from last year.
Disasters also played a part in the rise in the count, especially last year's catastrophic Maui wildfire, the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century. More than 5,200 people were staying in emergency shelters in Hawaii on the night of the count.
“Increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing,” Renee Willis, incoming interim CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in a statement. “As advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience have warned, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to increase as more people struggle to afford sky-high housing costs.”
Robert Marbut Jr., the former executive director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness from 2019 to 2021, called the nearly 33% increase in homelessness over the past four years “disgraceful” and said the federal government needs to abandon efforts to prioritize permanent housing.
“We need to focus on treatment of substance use and mental illness, and bring back program requirements, like job training,” Marbut said in an email.
The numbers also come as increasing numbers of communities are taking a hard line against homelessness.
Communities — especially in Western states — have been enforcing bans on camping as public pressure grows to address what some residents say are dangerous and unsanitary living conditions. That follows a 6-3 ruling earlier this year by the Supreme Court that found that outdoor sleeping bans don’t violate the Eighth Amendment. Homeless advocates argued that punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness.
There was some positive news in the count, as homelessness among veterans continued to trend downwards. Homelessness among veterans dropped 8% to 32,882 in 2024. It was an even larger decrease for unsheltered veterans, declining 11% to 13,851 in 2024.
“The reduction in veteran homelessness offers us a clear roadmap for addressing homelessness on a larger scale,” Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement. “With bipartisan support, adequate funding, and smart policy solutions, we can replicate this success and reduce homelessness nationwide. Federal investments are critical in tackling the country’s housing affordability crisis and ensuring that every American has access to safe, stable housing.”
Several large cities had success bringing down their homeless numbers. Dallas, which worked to overhaul its homeless system, saw a 16% drop in its numbers between 2022 to 2024. Los Angeles, which increased housing for the homeless, saw a drop of 5% in unsheltered homelessness since 2023. California, the most populous state in the US, continued to have the nation's largest homeless population, followed by New York, Washington, Florida and Massachusetts.
The sharp increase in the homeless population over the past two years contrasts with success the US had been having for more than a decade.
Going back to the first 2007 survey, the US made steady progress for about a decade in reducing the homeless population as the government focused particularly on increasing investments to get veterans into housing. The number of homeless people dropped from about 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017.
The numbers ticked up to about 580,000 in the 2020 count and held relatively steady over the next two years as Congress responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with emergency rental assistance, stimulus payments, aid to states and local governments and a temporary eviction moratorium.