According to the statement, hospitals in China appear to be filling up amid concerns about a fresh COVID-19 wave hitting the country and the intensive care units (ICU) are busy despite officials saying numbers are “relatively low”.

“I would not like to say that China is actively not telling us what is going on. I think they are behind the curve,” Dr. Ryan shared. The WHO declared that the organization was ready to work with China to improve the way of collecting data by the country around critical factors such as hospitalisation and death.

“The WHO would encourage work to import vaccines, but also to find arrangements where vaccines can be produced in as many places as possible,” Dr. Ryan added.

WHO’s chief Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently stated that the head of the organization was very concerned about the unprecedented wave of COVID-19 cases in China, as the health body urged Beijing to accelerate vaccination of the most vulnerable.

China has imposed strict health restrictions as part of its “zero COVID” policy since 2020. The government ended many of these restrictions recently due to the widespread protests across the country against the strict controls.

The number of cases has since increased, leading to fears of a high mortality rate among the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.

According to Chinese authorities, only those who had directly died of respiratory failure caused by the virus would now be counted under COVID-19 death statistics.

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