WHO: The World Health Organization has warned that China isn’t telling the truth about how Covid is affecting the country, especially in terms of deaths.
Since most restrictions were lifted last month, the number of cases has gone up.
But China has stopped reporting new cases every day and has only reported 22 Covid deaths since December, based on its own strict standards.
“We think that definition [of a Covid death] is too narrow,” Dr. Michael Ryan, who is in charge of emergencies at WHO, said.
Dr. Ryan said that China’s numbers “don’t show the real impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, ICU admissions, and especially deaths.”
China changed its rules about what counts as a Covid death last month. Now, only people who die of lung diseases are counted.
This goes against advice from the WHO, which tells countries to keep track of the number of extra deaths, or how many more people die than would have been expected based on death rates before the pandemic.
Dr. Ryan also said that China had been working with the WHO more in recent weeks, and he was looking forward to getting “more complete data.”
But he also said that each health worker could give their own information and experiences.
Dr. Ryan said, “We don’t stop doctors and nurses from telling us about these deaths and cases.” “We use an open method so that we can keep track of the real effects of disease on society.”
The UK science data company Airfinity says that there are more than 2 million Covid cases and 14,700 deaths in China every day.
Since China gave up key parts of its “zero-Covid” strategy almost a month ago, hospitals and crematoriums have been said to be full.
More than a dozen countries have made it harder for people from China to travel there. Beijing has said that these are based on politics and has threatened to take action.
Wednesday, the European Union released new guidelines that “strongly” suggest that all member states require passengers flying from China to show a negative Covid test before they leave.
Even though the number of cases has gone up, no new types of Covid have been found in China. But the WHO says this could be because there aren’t as many tests being done.
The Chinese government has said it is sending medical supplies to rural hospitals in preparation for a wave of coronavirus infections that is expected in the countryside, where vaccination rates aren’t always high.
The head of the WHO’s alert and response coordination department, Dr. Abdi Rahman Mahamud, has warned that China could see another wave of infections when families get together for the Lunar New Year in a few weeks, which is one of the busiest travel times in the country.
