BEIJING, Jan 11 — China should ultimately determine Covid-19 death figures by looking at excess mortality, Wang Qingquan, the head of the infectious diseases department at Peking University First Hospital said at a briefing yesterday.

The death rate is dynamic when the coronavirus is still spreading, and deaths can only be accurately counted after the pandemic is over, Liang Wannian, head of a Covid-19 expert panel under the national health authority, told the same briefing. — Reuters