A senior official at the WHO criticised China’s ‘too narrow’ definition for COVID-related deaths.
China’s data on Covid-19 does not give an accurate picture of the situation in the country and does not represent the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease, a senior World Health Organization official said today. The comment came as the UN agency prepares to meet again on Thursday with Chinese scientists as part of a wider briefing among member states on the global Covid-19 situation.
“We believe that the current numbers published by China do not represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, ICU admissions, especially in terms of deaths,” the director of WHO’s emergencies service told a news conference. , Mike Ryan.
Earlier in the same press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the Organization is “concerned” about the rise in Covid-19 infections in China and again urged Beijing to quickly and regularly provide data on hospitalizations and deaths in the country.
At the same time, a senior doctor at one of Shanghai’s top hospitals said that 70% of the city’s population may have been infected with the coronavirus during China’s massive surge in cases, state media reported today, Tuesday, according to AFP.
