China: The World Health Organization has criticised China’s “very narrow” definition of COVID deaths, claiming that official statistics from the country were not showing the true impact of the outbreak.

The world’s most populous country has witnessed a steep rise in COVID-19 infections since Beijing abruptly lifted years of strict restrictions at the end of 2022.

“We still do not have complete data,” WHO’s emergencies director, Mr. Michael Ryan, remarked.

“We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, ICU admissions, and particularly deaths,” Mr. Ryan stated.

According to the official data from the country, China has recorded only 22 COVID deaths since December 2022. The country narrowed the criteria for classifying such fatalities, meaning that Beijing’s own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality.

The UN agency released data provided by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), soon after WHO officials met Chinese scientists.

According to the data reported by WHO, China’s CDC analysis showed a predominance of Omicron sublineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 among locally acquired infections.

Earlier, the WHO chief, Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that the organisation’s officials had held high-level talks in recent weeks with counterparts in China.

Mr. Tedros later reiterated that the UN health agency understood why some countries were introducing fresh COVID curbs on visitors from China.

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