The World Health Organization is criticizing China’s “very narrow” definition of COVID deaths, warning that official statistics were not showing the true impact of the outbreak.
“We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan tells reporters.
WHO Director Tedros Ghebreyesus also presses China, saying it has not been forthcoming with information.
“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,” he tells a news conference.
Patients on stretchers are seen at Tongren hospital in Shanghai on January 3, 2023 (Hector RETAMAL / AFP)
“WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses, to protect against hospitalization, severe disease, and death.”
He says that approximately 10,000 deaths a day are recorded due to COVID, though the true toll is likely much higher.
AFP contributed.
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