China’s official data on COVID-19 deaths have always been transparent, state media late on Thursday quoted a senior health official as saying, despite the official figures being tiny compared with other countries and reports that the country’s hospitals are overwhelmed with cases of the disease.
Beijing’s release of all virus information was done “in the spirit of openness,” the official told a Chinese State Council news briefing, Xinhua news agency reported.
A national disease control body yesterday said there were about 5,500 new local cases and one death, but with the end of mass testing and the narrowing of criteria for what counts as a COVID-19 fatality, those numbers are no longer believed to reflect reality.
Photo: Reuters
Some experts estimate there might be as many as 9,000 daily deaths.
“China has always been publishing information on COVID-19 deaths and severe cases in the spirit of openness and transparency,” said Jiao Yahui (焦雅輝), director of the Chinese National Health Commission’s Bureau of Medical Administration.
Jiao said that China counts COVID-19 deaths as cases only if they died of respiratory failure induced by the virus after testing positive with a nucleic acid test, rather than other countries that include all deaths within 28 days of positive tests.
“China has always been committed to the scientific criteria for judging COVID-19 deaths, from beginning to end, which are in line with the international criteria,” Jiao said.
The commission last week said it would no longer release an official daily COVID-19 death toll.
Health risk analysis firm Airfinity said it currently estimates 9,000 daily deaths and 1.8 million infections per day in China, while it also expects 1.7 million fatalities across the country by the end of April.
The UK-based research company said its model was based on data from Chinese provinces, before changes to reporting infections were implemented, combined with case growth rates from other countries that tried to suppress the transmission of the virus before lifting restrictions.
China said this week it would end mandatory quarantine on arrival, after earlier this month announcing it had abandoned a raft of tough measures to contain the virus.
The world’s most populous country said it would downgrade its management of COVID-19 from Jan. 8, treating it as a Class B infection, rather than a more serious Class A infection.
Liang Wannian (梁萬年), a senior official at the commission who oversaw China’s COVID-19 response until September 2020, called the moves appropriate, scientific and law-based, Xinhua reported.
The state news agency reported Liang as saying the shift does not mean China is letting the virus go, but that is instead directing resources to the most important areas of controlling the epidemic and treating infected people.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS