China chief epidemiologist's assurance on Covid stats amid criticism

The recent surge in Covid cases in China has caught the global attention.

Published on: Jan 7, 2023, 20:19:40 IST

By HT News Desk | Reported by Swati Bhasin, New Delhi

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In what is being viewed as statement in rebuttal to general criticism about data on coronavirus, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on Friday stressed that the country "has always worked to collect, analyse and assess statistics" on the pandemic as the details are key to tackling the pandemic. At a briefing on Friday, the state-run Global Times reported, the top expert shared how his nation has been following set patterns on collecting and analysing statistics ever since the first outbreak was reported in the city of Wuhan in 2019.

People board a domestic flight at Harbin Taiping International Airport in Harbin, in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province. (AFP)

"After the spread of the virus was brought under control in Wuhan, and until December 2022, sporadic outbreak in China were mainly caused by overseas imported cases and China quickly identified these outbreaks and extinguished them within a short space of time," Wu was quoted as saying in the report, stressing that the information collected during this period is "very accurate".

China is in the midst of handling one of its worst-ever outbreak of coronavirus after millions contracted the virus in December. BF.7 was one of the subvariants which was linked to the outbreak as visuals of overcrowded hospitals flooded social media yet again, reminding the world of its challenging fight amid the pandemic. But the country has faced criticism for not being transparent with the data on the number of actual cases and deaths.

The National Health Commission (NHC) had last month said it won't publish the daily figures days after a report - by the agency - was said to have been leaked, which showed that about 18 per cent of the population had contracted the virus in the first three weeks of December.

Meanwhile, China is set to end its international isolation from 12 AM on Sunday, opening airports and ports for travel and trade, despite the fresh surge.

This comes as Saturday marked the first day of "chun yun", the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel known pre-pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people.

(With agency inputs)

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