WHO criticizes China for data on mortality due to COVID-19

The World Health Organization has criticized China’s “very narrow” definition of Covid-19 deaths, warning that official statistics do not capture the true impact of the outbreak.

Concern is growing over a surge in COVID cases in China as Beijing abruptly lifted years of tight restrictions last month, leaving hospitals and crematoria quickly overwhelmed, The Guardian writes.

“We still don’t have the full data,” says Michael Ryan, director of emergencies at WHO.

The UN agency released data provided by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a day after WHO officials met with Chinese scientists. Beijing reports daily Covid deaths in single figures.

“We believe that the current data released from China does not sufficiently reflect the true impact of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, admissions to the intensive care unit and especially in terms of deaths,” the WHO says.

China has recorded just 22 Covid deaths since December and has sharply narrowed the criteria for classifying such deaths, meaning Beijing’s own statistics on the unprecedented wave are now widely viewed as not reflecting reality.

An analysis by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a preponderance of the Omicron BA.5.2 and BF.7 sub-series among local infections, according to data provided by WHO.

Omicron remains the dominant coronavirus variant based on recent genome sequencing, confirming what scientists have already said, but for now dispelling fears of a new variant of concern.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier that WHO officials had held high-level talks with counterparts in China in recent weeks.

“We continue to request faster, more regular and reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths from China, as well as more complete real-time sequencing of the virus,” Tedros said.

He reiterated that the UN health agency understands why some countries are imposing new COVID-19 restrictions on visitors from China.

“Given such high circulation in China and the lack of complete data … it is understandable that some countries are taking steps that they believe will protect their own citizens,” he said.

Speaking hours after the WHO briefing, US President Joe Biden said he was concerned about China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

“They are very sensitive … when we assume that they were not so outspoken,” the American president told reporters during a trip to Kentucky.

The US, which has been demanding negative results from most travelers from China since Thursday, praised the role of the WHO and said Washington’s own precautionary measures were due to a lack of transparency on the part of Beijing.

According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, the UN health authority “was in a better position to make an assessment” because of its contacts with Chinese officials.

Many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals are reporting they are overwhelmed, and international health experts are predicting at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year.

Despite this, writes The Guardian, China reports five or fewer deaths per day since the lifting of restrictions related to the absence of COVID.

“This is completely ridiculous,” Zhang, a 66-year-old Beijing resident who gave only his last name, said of the official death toll. “Four of my close relatives have died. This is just one family. I hope the government will honestly tell the people and the rest of the world about what really happened here.”

Around 9,000 people in China are likely to die each day from COVID, according to British health data company Airfinity.

Patients at Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital, many of them elderly, found themselves stranded in crowded hallways between makeshift beds filled with people on oxygen ventilators and intravenous drips.

A Reuters witness counted seven hearses on Wednesday in the parking lot of Tongji Hospital in Shanghai. The workers were seen carrying at least 18 yellow bags used to transport the bodies.

China’s cabinet said on Wednesday it would increase drug distribution and meet demand from medical institutions, nursing homes and rural areas, state media reported.