Wary China stops publishing Covid data after leaked numbers say they have 250 million cases
China's eastern Zhejiang province reported 1 million new cases per day. Photo: dailyO
Covid-19 cases in China are now at an all-time high, and reports suggest that the conditions might worsen. Amidst all the chaos, China's government announced on Sunday (December 2) that it has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 data (number of cases and deaths).
The National Health Commission (NHC) declared that it is discontinuing the practice which began in early 2020. Despite the fact that the data for the cases were often skewed and manipulated, the data supplied by the government offered analysts hope about the little caution that the government could be giving to the public and Covid-19 instances.
Cities across China are grappling with an increase in infections, resulting in empty pharmacy shelves and packed hospitals and crematoriums after the government abruptly ended its zero-Covid rule due to an increase in protests in the country earlier this month.
The local authorities in China's eastern Zhejiang province are reporting 1 million new cases per day. Meanwhile, Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported on a leaked estimate by top Chinese health experts that up to 250 million individuals were infected in the first 20 days of December.
Despite the increase in cases, China has banned most public testing booths, leaving no precise public gauge of the country's infection rate.
Data already botched? Currently, anyone who die of Covid in China but had comorbidities will not be included in the Covid deaths in the country.
NPR reports that China reported zero Covid deaths in the four days before the health commission's decision to stop providing statistics.
What are reports saying?
- According to Airfinity, a British global health intelligence company, China's real Covid estimates are a million cases and 5,000 fatalities every day.
- If China's social distance measures are not maintained, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicts up to 1 million fatalities by 2023.