The Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) yesterday ceased publishing daily COVID-19 data amid doubts about the reliability of numbers, as infections explode in the wake of an abrupt easing of tough restrictions.
“Relevant COVID information will be published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research,” the commission said in a statement.
It did not specify the reasons for the change or how frequently the center would update COVID-19 information.
Photo: AFP
The NHC’s halt to reporting daily infection and death totals comes as concerns grow around the lack of vital information since Beijing made sweeping changes to a “zero COVID” policy that had put hundreds of millions of its citizens under relentless lockdowns and battered the world’s second-largest economy.
Despite a record surge of infections, the NHC had reported no COVID-19 deaths nationwide for four consecutive days before halting the data release. China narrowed its definition for reporting COVID-19 deaths, counting only those from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by the disease.
British-based health data firm Airfinity last week said that China was experiencing more than 1 million infections and 5,000 deaths per day.
The NHC this month stopped reporting asymptomatic infections, making it harder to track cases.
Official figures from China had become an unreliable guide as less testing was being done across the country, while China has been routinely accused of downplaying infections and deaths.
The US has also reported COVID-19 cases less frequently, changing from daily to weekly updates, citing needs to reduce the reporting burden on local areas.
The WHO has received no data from China on new COVID-19 hospitalizations since Beijing eased its restrictions. The organization said the data gap might be due to the authorities struggling to tally cases in the world’s most populous country.
“China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,” a research note from Capital Economics said. “The authorities are making almost no efforts now to slow the spread of infections and, with the migration ahead of Lunar New Year getting started, any parts of the country not currently in a major COVID wave will be soon.”
After years of enforcing strict measures, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) abandonment of his signature “zero COVID” policy now puts a spotlight on the country’s exit plan as Hong Kong plans to reopen China’s border.
China’s abrupt easing of restrictions, including the dismantling of widespread mass testing, had confused its citizens and stoked frustrations as cases soared while official numbers remained incomplete.
“You didn’t count me when I was positive for COVID and you didn’t know when I turned negative. The statistics and reality are too far apart,” a social media user wrote after the NHC halted its daily case reporting, adding that there has been no need to publish them for quite a while.
The cities of Qingdao and Dongguan have each estimated tens of thousands of daily COVID-19 infections in the past few days, much higher than the national daily toll without asymptomatic cases.
Several recent models and reports have forecast as many as 2 million COVID-19 deaths as the virus spreads to vulnerable people in rural sections of the country.
The country’s healthcare system has been under enormous strain, with staff being asked to work while sick, and even retired medical workers in rural communities being rehired to help grassroots efforts, state media reported.
Bolstering the urgency is the approach of the Lunar New Year holidays in January, when enormous numbers of people return home.
Daily requests to the emergency center in the eastern city of Hangzhou have more than tripled on average from last year’s level, state television reported yesterday, citing a Hangzhou health official.
Suzhou, also in the east, on Saturday said its emergency line received a record 7,233 calls on Thursday.
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