Photo: MARTIAL TREZZINI/KEYSTONE/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized on Wednesday (01.04.2023) China’s new definition of covid deathsdescribing it as “very small”, and affirmed that the official statistics do not adjust to the true impact of the epidemic in the country.
“We believe that the current figures released by China underrepresent the real impact of the disease. in terms of admissions to hospitals, admissions to intensive care and above all in terms of deaths”, declared Michael Ryan, the organization responsible for managing health emergency situations, at a press conference.
China is currently facing its worst outbreak of infections after the lifting, at the beginning of December, of its restrictive “zero covid” policy. Currently, many countries are demanding a negative test from people traveling from China, a measure questioned by the Asian giant.
Change of methodology questioned
Despite the wave of cases, the country reports few deaths linked to covid-19 after a controversial change in counting methodology.
Now, only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to the coronavirus are counted in the statistics.
“We think this definition is too narrow,” Ryan said.
WHO pressure on China
Last week, WHO met with Chinese authorities to talk about the explosion in the number of infections and hospitalizations.
“We continue to ask China for faster, regular and reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as the most complete and real-time sequence of the virus,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed at a press conference. this Wednesday.
“These figures are useful for WHO and the whole world, and we urge all countries to share them. The data remains essential for WHO to be able to make regular, rapid and robust assessments of the risks associated with the current situation and adapt its advice and guidelines accordingly,” he stated.
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