Chengdu is mentioned on the front page of today's Washington Post,
above the fold:

Satellite images show crowds at China's crematoriums as covid surges

January 9, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. EST

An overwhelmed funeral home in Chengdu, China, stopped offering
memorial services, budgeting just two minutes for each family to say
goodbye to loved ones before cremation. A funeral parlor on the
outskirts of Beijing quickly cleared space for a new parking lot.
Scalpers in Shanghai sold places in line at funeral homes for $300
a pop to grieving relatives trying to get cremation slots.

Still, the Chinese government continues to insist that fewer than 40
people have died in China of covid since Dec. 7, when "zero covid"
restrictions aimed at entirely eliminating the virus were suddenly
dropped -- and infection numbers exploded.

A Washington Post examination of satellite imagery, firsthand videos
posted to social media and witness accounts suggests that China's
covid death toll is far higher than the government's tally,
undermining Beijing's claim that the outbreak remains under control.

Funeral homes across the country have seen a dramatic increase in
activity compared with a few months ago and with the same time last
year, as vehicles deliver bodies and residents line up to have their
loved ones cremated, according to The Post's analysis. It provides
clear visual evidence that official records do not reflect the full
toll of the outbreak.

Imagery captured by Maxar Technologies and provided to The Post
showed an uptick in activity at funeral homes across six different
cities, from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the east, to Chengdu
and Kunming in the southwest.

. . .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/01/09/china-crematorium-covid-deaths/

(Yes, this was in today's hardcopy paper, Thursday the 12th, though
it's dated the 9th.)

Of course the Worldcon is still seven months away. Things could get
better by then. Or they could get worse.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On 1/12/23 16:23, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> Chengdu is mentioned on the front page of today's Washington Post,
> above the fold:
>
> Satellite images show crowds at China's crematoriums as covid surges
>
> January 9, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. EST
>
> An overwhelmed funeral home in Chengdu, China, stopped offering
> memorial services, budgeting just two minutes for each family to say
> goodbye to loved ones before cremation. A funeral parlor on the
> outskirts of Beijing quickly cleared space for a new parking lot.
> Scalpers in Shanghai sold places in line at funeral homes for $300
> a pop to grieving relatives trying to get cremation slots.
>
> Still, the Chinese government continues to insist that fewer than 40
> people have died in China of covid since Dec. 7, when "zero covid"
> restrictions aimed at entirely eliminating the virus were suddenly
> dropped -- and infection numbers exploded.
>
> A Washington Post examination of satellite imagery, firsthand videos
> posted to social media and witness accounts suggests that China's
> covid death toll is far higher than the government's tally,
> undermining Beijing's claim that the outbreak remains under control.
>
> Funeral homes across the country have seen a dramatic increase in
> activity compared with a few months ago and with the same time last
> year, as vehicles deliver bodies and residents line up to have their
> loved ones cremated, according to The Post's analysis. It provides
> clear visual evidence that official records do not reflect the full
> toll of the outbreak.
>
> Imagery captured by Maxar Technologies and provided to The Post
> showed an uptick in activity at funeral homes across six different
> cities, from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the east, to Chengdu
> and Kunming in the southwest.
>
> . . .
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/01/09/china-crematorium-covid-deaths/
>
> (Yes, this was in today's hardcopy paper, Thursday the 12th, though
> it's dated the 9th.)
>
> Of course the Worldcon is still seven months away. Things could get
> better by then. Or they could get worse.
During the start of the outbreak my cousin who was living in Hong Kong
wife's family in China had a number of Doctors in it. What they told
her at the time was that they were ordered not to put covid as a cause
of death. So it is not like this is new.

It is quite possible that no one actually knows how many have died from
covid in China since every layer of the government seems to have been
lying to the one above it and then the Politburo burnt those numbers and
pulled some new ones out of it's ass.