China reports first COVID deaths since January 2021

China is tackling its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic first began in the city of Wuhan late in 2019 [Andy Wong/AP Photo]

China has announced its first confirmed COVID-19 deaths in more than a year, amid an Omicron-fulled surge of cases in the country’s northeast.

The two deaths were both reported on Saturday in Jilin province, bringing the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.