China reports huge rise in COVID-related deaths after data criticism- Summary- Companies- Nearly 60,000 COVID-related hospital deaths reported- China has been criticised for under-reporting COVID deaths- Official says emergency hospitalisations have peaked- Travel recovering ahead of Lunar New Year holidayBEIJING, Jan 14 (Reuters) - China said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospital since it abandoned its zero-COVID policy last month, a huge increase from previously reported figures that follows global criticism of the country's coronavirus data.In early December, Beijing abruptly dismantled its strict three-year anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns after widespread protests in late November, and cases have surged since then across the nation of 1.4 billion.The World Health Organization, which earlier this week said that China was heavily under-reporting deaths from the virus and called for more information, on Saturday welcomed Beijing's announcement, while renewing its plea for more detailed data.While international health experts have predicted at least 1 million COVID-related deaths this year, China had previously reported just over 5,000 deaths since the pandemic began, one of the lowest death rates in the world.Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the tenfold increase in deaths announced on Saturday suggested China's COVID policy reversal "is indeed associated with" a sharp rise in severe cases and deaths, especially among older people."