Ailiya, a former high school teacher, was devastated when her 85-year-old father died after displaying COVID-like symptoms as the virus swept through their hometown of the southeastern province of Jiangxi.
While her father was never tested, Ailiya and her mother were both confirmed positive at the same time and believe that COVID was a factor in their deaths.
As millions of Chinese travel to reunite with families for the Lunar New Year holiday that begins on January 21, many will do so after mourning relatives who have died in the COVID-19 wave sweeping the world’s largest population. will do.
For many, what they say is a lack of preparedness to protect the elderly before China abruptly abandons its “zero-Covid” policy in December 2022 after three years of testing, travel bans and lockdowns. But grief is mixed.
Ailiya, 56, said she supported the reopening of the economy, like countless Chinese people. Her father died in late December, shortly after China lifted its COVID restrictions.
“We wanted things to open, but not open like this — not at the expense of so many veterans who have a huge impact on every family,” she said by phone.
On Saturday, China announced that there have been nearly 60,000 COVID-related hospital deaths since the end of “zero-COVID” — a 10-fold increase from previous figures — but many international experts say this is an undercount, as This does not include people who died at home, such as Aaliyah’s father.