A satellite image taken on Jan. 3, 2022 shows a funeral home in Huzhou with a crowded parking lot. A picture taken in January last year shows far fewer cars. Credit – Maxar
Recent satellite images taken by funeral homes and crematoria in several Chinese cities show a significant uptick in activity as COVID-19 cases surge across the country and reliable figures on the death toll are hard to find.
In early December, China drastically switched from its hardline zero-COVID policy to a massive reopening following mass unrest. Experts had warned that an outbreak of cases could result in up to a million deaths due to apparent deficiencies in the population’s immunity to infectious variants. Official data captures 37 COVID-19-related deaths between December 7 and January 8 – although photos and video of scenes at funeral homes and burials divided on social media have suggested that the actual number is higher.
Since the pandemic began, Beijing has been accused of hiding its actual COVID-19 numbers, especially as neighboring Hong Kong, which also had a zero-COVID policy, recorded about 1.5% of adults aged 80 and over dying from the disease End of its fifth wave of infections. Hong Kong and mainland China have similarly struggled to vaccinate their elderly populations, and Hong Kong infections spiked in early 2022 after an outbreak of the Omicron variant.
Continue reading: Why China Can’t Just End Its Zero-COVID Policy
While an increase in the country’s total deaths during the winter season is not uncommon, more than 30 images obtained by TIME from space technology company Maxar offer insights into the unique current situation through historical comparisons. Crematoria and funeral homes have seen an increase in foot traffic this winter compared to snapshots from the same periods in previous years.
China — which once announced the world’s lowest death toll from COVID-19, which the Communist Party blamed on prolonged enforcement of testing, quarantines and lockdowns as part of its “zero-COVID” approach — is now being banned by the World Health Organization for alleged under-reporting criticizes the current death toll in the country.
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Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China expert and professor emeritus at Hong Kong Baptist University, told TIME that the satellite imagery “shows the number of deaths is much higher than what authorities have reported.”
What do the satellite images show?
Snapshots from the Tongzhou District Funeral Home in the capital Beijing indicate the construction of a parking lot by December 24, 2022, showing dozens of vehicles. The lot did not exist in a snapshot taken less than three weeks earlier.