The publication of data on the incidence of COVID-19 in China has been suspended: what is happening

Frightening rise in coronavirus disease comes after abrupt lifting of restrictions

China stops publishing daily data on COVID-19 amid reports of an explosion in coronavirus cases. The decision comes as the country’s healthcare system is facing an enormous strain following the sudden end to the “COVID zero” policy.

China’s National Health Commission has stopped publishing daily data on COVID-19 amid concerns over the numbers’ credibility following a sharp easing of tight restrictions.

“Relevant COVID information will be released by the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research,” the commission said in a statement, without stating the reasons for the change or how often the control center will inform the public of new COVID information.

The sudden halt to daily reports of infections and deaths comes amid rising concerns over a lack of critical information available after Beijing made drastic changes to its COVID zero policy, putting hundreds of millions of its citizens into lockdown and its second-largest economy world has faced considerable problems, notes The Guardian.

Despite a record surge in infections, the National Health Commission reported no COVID deaths nationwide for four straight days before suspending data releases. Last week, China narrowed its definition of death from COVID to only deaths from coronavirus-induced pneumonia or respiratory failure.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that China may be struggling to keep count of COVID-19 infections. The WHO has not received data from China on new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing eased its restrictions. A lack of data transparency has made monitoring the extent of this latest coronavirus outbreak difficult.

Officially, China has reported fewer than 10 COVID-related deaths in the past two weeks, but a surge in demand for crematorium services has been interpreted as evidence that the true death toll is much higher.

British medical data firm Airfinity estimated last week that China is seeing more than a million infections and 5,000 deaths every day.

On Friday, a local health official in Qingdao said the city was reporting “between 490,000 and 530,000” new COVID cases daily. The report was circulated by several other news outlets but appears to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove case data.

China’s healthcare system is under enormous strain, state media reports say, with staff forced to work while sick and retired health workers in rural communities are being rehired to provide grassroots care.

The relevance is reinforced by the approach of the lunar new year in January, when a huge number of people travel throughout China.