COVID-19 pandemic: China’s health commission makes controversial move

Concerns after Beijing made significant adjustments to its zero-Covid policy have led to the abrupt suspension in the posting of daily infection and mortality rate.

The National Health Commission (NHC) of China has stopped releasing daily Covid-19 data due to worries about the accuracy of the data after infections skyrocketed following a sudden relaxation of rigorous regulations.

The NHC stopped disclosing statistics after reporting no Covid deaths nationally for four days in a row despite the record-breaking spike in infections. China’s definition of a Covid fatality was trimmed last week to only include cases of pneumonia or respiratory failure brought on by Covid.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning last week that China may find it difficult to keep track of Covid-19 infections. Since Beijing loosened its restrictions, the WHO has not received any information from China regarding new Covid hospitalisations.

It has been challenging to track the scope of the most recent Covid epidemic due to a lack of data.

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An increase in the demand for crematoriums has been regarded as proof that the genuine death toll is significantly higher than the less than 10 Covid-related deaths that China has officially documented in the last two weeks.

According to Airfinity, a British company that collects health statistics, China has more than a million infections and 5,000 fatalities every day.

Recently, a number of models and analyses have predicted that the COVID-19 virus could cause up to two million fatalities as it spreads to rural areas of the nation, endangering the most susceptible elderly population and the unvaccinated.

According to state media, the nation’s healthcare system has been under a great deal of stress as a result of staff members being requested to work while ill and even retired medical professionals in rural towns being rehired to support grassroots initiatives.

The approaching Lunar New Year in January, when a large number of people return home, strengthens the urgency.