WHO: China under-represented Covid cases; urges Beijing to share reliable data on explosive spread
Chinese hospitals, crematoriums struggling with influx of patients and bodies
Geneva, January 6: World Health Organization (WHO) officials, who have grappled with Beijing's tight control of data access throughout Covid-19 pandemic, has become increasingly vocal in their calls for reliable information. Notably, a major outbreak rips through China's urban centres in the wake of an abrupt relaxation of disease control last month, reported CNN.
The WHO has accused China of "under-representing" the severity of its Covid outbreak and criticised its "narrow" definition of what constitutes a Covid death. Top global health officials have urged Beijing to share more data about the explosive spread.
"We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalisations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.
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"The WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses, to protect against hospitalisation, severe disease, and death," he said.
Speaking in more detail, WHO executive director for health emergencies Mike Ryan said the numbers released by China "under-represent the true impact of the disease" in terms of hospital and ICU admissions, as well as deaths, reported CNN.
He acknowledged that many countries had seen lags in reporting hospital data, but pointed to China's "narrow" definition of a Covid death as part of the issue.
The country only lists those Covid patients who succumbed to respiratory failure as having died of Covid. In the two weeks prior to January 5, China reported fewer than 20 deaths from local Covid cases, according to figures released on the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
However, on Thursday, China's Foreign Ministry said the country had always shared epidemic information "in a timely, open and transparent manner" and insisted its Covid situation was "under control," reported CNN.
China continues to battle the sudden surge in Covid cases following the relaxation of the zero-Covid policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Incidentally, the scale of the current outbreak of the Covid infections has made it difficult for the authorities to track the Covid infections, following the end of the mandatory mass testing as part of the easing of Covid restrictions.
Chinese hospitals and crematoriums are also struggling with an influx of patients and dead bodies with rural areas facing most of the brunt.
However, the Chinese authorities have been circulating a narrative that the peak of the current Covid wave had already passed in most of the cities, including Beijing, in order to address the concerns of both domestic and international communities.