Officially, very few people die in China after the end of the zero-Covid policy. Data analysts have a very different opinion. They expect up to 25,000 deaths a day. On the Chinese financial markets, the country's largest funeral home is the main beneficiary.
On the Chinese financial markets, one funeral home in particular is benefiting from the abrupt end of the zero-Covid policy. Fu Shou Yuan International Group shares have almost doubled in value over the past two months. On October 31, the exchange rate hit a new low for the year at 3.81 Hong Kong dollars - the equivalent of 0.46 euros. Since then, the price has jumped more than 72 percent to HK$6.75.
Fu Shou Yuan shares are traded in Hong Kong. As the business portal Quartz reports, the company is the largest provider of funeral services in China.
Accordingly, Fu Shou Yuan has been offering its services since 1994. In the meantime, customers can take advantage of funerals in 16 cities. The company owns 14 cemeteries and operates three of them.
According to official information from the People's Republic, the price explosion at Fu Shou Yuan is actually not justified. Since the strict corona measures were abruptly ended three weeks ago, a huge wave of infections has swept through the country. However, since there is hardly any testing, the authorities only report individual deaths and sometimes no deaths at all. In addition, deaths are only officially attributed to Covid-19 if narrow criteria are met.
However, observations in social networks, among other things, show that demand from funeral homes has recently skyrocketed. After an analysis, experts from the British data company Airfinity come to the conclusion that 9,000 people are currently dying of Covid-19 in China every day. That would almost double the estimate from last week.
According to the model calculations, the peak of the current wave should be reached on January 23 with around 25,000 deaths per day. The government in Beijing has only reported ten corona deaths since its turnaround.
