Mainland health officials on Wednesday reported no new Covid-19 deaths for December 20, compared with five the previous day, and revised the nation's fatalities to 5,241 after removing one death in Beijing.

It comes after authorities changed the criteria for recording coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, with only those who had directly died of respiratory failure caused by the virus counted.

Previously, people who died of an illness while infected with the virus were counted as a Covid death.

"At present after being infected with the Omicron variant, the main cause of death remains underlying diseases," Wang Guiqiang of Peking University First Hospital told a press conference of the National Health Commission.

"Old people have other underlying conditions, only a very small number die directly of respiratory failure caused by infection with Covid," he added.

"We are not avoiding the dangers of Covid. At the same time we need to assess Covid's dangers in a scientific manner."

The country reported 3,049 new local cases, up from 2,656 a day earlier.

As of December 20, the mainland had confirmed 386,276 cases with symptoms.

Mainland authorities have stopped reporting asymptomatic cases, citing a lack of testing among people with no symptoms that was making it difficult to accurately tally the total count. (AFP/Reuters)