China stats ‘under-represent’ true impact of Covid outbreak: WHO

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation criticised on Wednesday China´s “very narrow” definition of Covid deaths, warning that official statistics were not showing the true impact of the outbreak.

“We still do not have complete data,” the WHO´s emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters. “We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths.”

His comments came amid growing concern over China´s steep rise in Covid infections since Beijing last month abruptly lifted years of hardline restrictions, with hospitals and crematoriums quickly overwhelmed.

Yet China has only recorded 22 Covid deaths since December and has dramatically 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.

“We believe that definition is too narrow,” Ryan said, pointing out that the definition Beijing is using “requires a respiratory failure” associated with a Covid infection for a fatality to be registered as a Covid death.