BEIJING: A day after the WHO claimed China was keeping the world in loop by not disclosing its correcr fatality rate, top epidemiologists from the country said it takes time to generate Covid-19 data amid caseload surge and the country is “actively publishing and sharing” accurate Covid-related data with world.
The statement also comes two days after China shared China shared its death count since it eased its Covid curbs.
Liang Wannian, head of China’s Covid-19 response expert panel under the National Health Commission, said that rather than focusing on the Covid death toll in China, “the priority for the world is to get through the impact of the pandemic”.
China recorded 59,938 Covid-related deaths between December 8, 2022 and January 12 this year, Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission, told a press conference. It includes 5,503 deaths caused by respiratory failure directly due to the virus, and 54,435 deaths caused by underlying diseases combined with Covid, Jiao added.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese CDC), said last week that right after the pandemic broke out in 2020, the centre has continued to analyse excess mortality and published the results.