There is growing concern over China's steep rise in Covid infections since Beijing abruptly lifted years of hard-line restrictions in December, with hospitals and crematoriums quickly overwhelmed.
GENEVA, Switzerland - The World Health Organisation criticised China's "very narrow" definition of COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, 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.
Ryan pointed out that the definition Beijing is using "requires a respiratory failure" associated with a COVID infection for a fatality to be registered as a COVID death.He stressed that it was vital to have accurate information about how the virus was spreading and the true impact it was having, and he suggested that individual health professionals could help provide a more accurate picture.
"With circulation in China so high and comprehensive data not forthcoming... it is understandable that some countries are taking steps they believe will protect their own citizens," he said.Outside of China, many experts have their attention on the US and Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which has been detected in 29 countries so far.
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