China reports first COVID death in a year

Chinese health authorities reported the first deaths from COVID-19 in more than a year.

The country’s National Health Commission disclosed two deaths in Jilin province, bringing China’s official death count to 4,638.

Both were elderly, Jiao Yahui, a health commission official, said at a news conference Saturday. One of them had been vaccinated.

China is facing an omicron variant wave, with 2,157 new cases reported Saturday and about 29,000 since March. The highly-contagious variant is putting the communist country’s restrictive “zero-COVID” doctrine to the test.

Many of Saturday’s new cases were in Jilin province, which is now subject to a travel ban.

With Post wires