E-Paper
Over 200,000 Covid cases in China, major data gaps: What WHO said
Covid In China: This comes as China reported five Covid-related deaths on Tuesday taking the official death count to 5,258.
China has reported 218,019 new weekly Covid cases since January 1, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a report as the country is facing a massive surge in infections since lifting restrictions in December following almost three years of stringent ‘zero-Covid’ policy.
Read more: Joe Biden says ‘worried’ on China's Covid handling: 'They're very sensitive…'
This comes as China reported five Covid-related deaths on Tuesday taking the official death count to 5,258. Earlier, the world health body had said that it had received no data from China on Covid hospitalisations since the country removed the curbs. The WHO said there are majoe gaps in data which might be due to Chinese authorities struggling to tally cases amid the uptick.
The WHO's latest report showed China recorded 22,416 new hospitalisations in the week to January 1 versus 15,161 the previous week. The number is still below the all-time peak of almost 29,000 hospital admissions in early December. China had then reported 218,019 new cases and 648 new deaths. During the same period, China reported nine related deaths.
Read more: Iran frees actor Taraneh Alidoosti after 18 days amid anti-hijab protests
However, WHO criticised China's handling of the pandemic asserting that the data from Beijing did not give an accurate picture of the situation, significantly under-representing the cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
This also comes as WHO is preparing to meet scientists from China as part of a wider briefing among member states on the global coronavirus situation. Meanwhile, several countries have also issued restrictions on travelers from China amid concerns related to the new variant and its spread.
