China’s National Health Commission (NHC) has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 data, amid concerns about the reliability of the figures after infections exploded in the wake of an abrupt easing of tough restrictions. “Relevant Covid information will be published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research,” the commission said in a statement, without specifying the reasons for the change or how frequently China CDC will update the public with new Covid information. The sudden halt to the reporting of daily infection and death totals comes…
Tag: Coronavirus
Chinese city seeing half a million Covid cases a day – local health chief
Half a million people a day are being infected with Covid-19 in a single Chinese city, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgment that the country’s wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics. A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist party in Qingdao reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new Covid cases a day. The coastal city of about 10 million people was “in a period of rapid transmission…
Taiwan may restrict Panadol sales to thwart bulk-buying for China
Taiwan may restrict the bulk buying of pain relief medications as people stock up, with some planning to ship their purchases to China, where the worsened Covid-19 situation has put a strain on supplies. Hsueh Jui-yuan, Taiwan’s minister of health and welfare, told lawmakers at a legislative committee hearing on Thursday that the health agency would first instruct pharmacies to advise customers not to snap up Panadol and related drugs. The health authorities would discuss if they needed to impose restrictions but there was no concreate plan in place yet,…
How accurate are China’s Covid death numbers?
The sudden end to China’s controversial zero-Covid strategy caught the country’s fragile health system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds, pharmacies on the hunt for drugs and authorities racing to build special clinics. On Thursday, a senior World Health Organisation official said China may be struggling to keep a tally of Covid-19 infections as it experiences a big spike in cases. Experts say China could face more than a million Covid deaths next year. But despite evidence of overwhelmed hospital and crematoriums, China’s government has fewer than 10 Covid deaths…
China ‘behind the curve’ in reporting Covid surge, WHO says
China may be struggling to keep a tally of Covid-19 infections as it experiences a big spike in cases, a senior World Health Organization official has said, amid concerns about a lack of data from the country. Official figures from China have become an unreliable guide after the country of 1.4 billion people this month began dismantling its unpopular zero-Covid lockdown and testing regime. The abrupt change caught a fragile health system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs and authorities racing to build special clinics.…
China is on the brink of its first major Covid surge. How it copes will affect us all | Devi Sridhar
The Chinese government has changed its approach from “zero Covid” to “living with Covid”. This is largely because the virus has become too transmissible to contain: new variants have emerged that cause one person to infect an estimated 16 others. As part of this shift towards “living with Covid”, entire cities are no longer in lockdown, restrictions have been lifted on domestic travel and people who test positive can now isolate at home instead of at government facilities. Testing has become voluntary, and asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 are no longer…
China Covid infection surge puts end of global emergency in doubt – WHO
It may be too early to declare the global end of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency because of a potentially devastating wave to come in China, according to several leading scientists and World Health Organization advisers. Their views represent a shift since China began to dismantle its zero-Covid policy last week after a spike in infections and unprecedented public protests. Projections have suggested the world’s second-largest economy could face more than a million deaths in 2023 after the abrupt change in course. China’s zero-Covid approach kept infections and deaths comparatively low…
China’s screeching U-turn on Covid will not be an instant fix
From zero tolerance to “let it rip”. China has not just changed its mind on how to cope with Covid, it has executed the mother of all U-turns in response to slower growth and mounting civil unrest at the draconian lockdowns. If Beijing is expecting an immediate economic boost from abandoning its tough controls it is mistaken. There will be a growth dividend from the policy shift but the state of the world’s second biggest economy will get worse before it gets better, and it will be next spring at…
China rushes to boost intensive care beds, doctors and stocks of medicine as Covid surges
Chinese authorities are rushing to boost the number of intensive care beds and health workers and increase medication supplies as Covid-19 surges through the country. Since the abrupt dismantling of the stringent zero-Covid regime, cases have skyrocketed in China. A full picture of the impact is difficult to gauge. Authorities have conceded it is “impossible” for the testing system to keep track, and the narrow parameters for attributing deaths to the virus mean the official count – fewer than 10 this week – is at odds with widespread anecdotal reports…
China’s cities fall quiet amid warning of three Covid waves over winter
Streets in major Chinese cities were eerily quiet on Sunday as people opted to stay home to protect themselves from a surge in Covid-19 cases that has hit urban centres from north to south as officials warn of more waves to come. The latest official figures continue to show a relatively low number of new daily cases, however concerns linger over the accuracy of the data amid reports of over-burdened funeral homes and crematoriums. The country’s chief epidemiologist has also warned that China is in the first of an expected…