China holds its position on COVID despite WHO
2023.01.05 08:09
China holds its position on COVID despite WHO
Budrigannews.com – After U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern and the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths, China defended its handling of its raging COVID-19 outbreak on Thursday.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergency director, said on Wednesday that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts. These were some of the most critical comments made by the UN agency thus far.
After protests against its strict COVID controls, China abandoned a policy that had protected its 1.4 billion people from the virus for three years.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, stated at a regular press conference in Beijing that China had promptly and openly shared COVID data with the WHO and that China’s “epidemic situation is controllable.”
Mao stated, “Facts have proven that China has always maintained close communication and shared relevant information and data with the WHO in a timely manner in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness, and transparency.”
On Wednesday, China reported one additional COVID death on the mainland, up from five the day before, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.
Ryan said that Beijing’s definition of COVID-related deaths was too narrow and that China’s numbers underrepresented hospital admissions, ICU patients, and deaths.
Hours later, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern regarding China’s handling of a COVID outbreak that has overwhelmed some funeral homes and filled hospitals.
Biden stated to reporters, “They’re very sensitive… when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming.”
The French health minister expressed similar concerns, and the German health minister Karl Lauterbach expressed concern regarding a brand-new COVID subvariant linked to the rising number of hospital admissions in the United States.
More than a dozen nations have imposed restrictions on Chinese tourists. The United States is one of them. On Thursday, Germany announced stricter regulations.
China, which criticized such border controls, announced on Sunday that it would reopen its border with Hong Kong, its special administrative region, for the first time in three years.
Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong (OTC:) said on Thursday that it would more than double the number of flights to China’s mainland.
The Lunar New Year holiday will see millions of people travel within China later this month. The WHO has warned that this could lead to a second wave of infections if vaccination rates aren’t increased and other precautions aren’t taken.
China has minimized the situation’s seriousness. Using interviews with doctors, the state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday that COVID had reached its peak in Beijing and several other cities.
However, a Reuters witness stated that on Thursday, bedridden patients lined the corridors of the emergency treatment area and main lobby at a hospital in Shanghai’s suburban Qingpu district. The majority of the patients were elderly, and several were breathing through oxygen tanks.
Patients would have to wait an average of five hours to be seen, according to a notice board.
One elderly patient was deemed dead by staff, and a note with the phrase “respiratory failure” was pinned to the body on the floor.
Police were on patrol outside a nearby crematorium, where mourners waited to collect the ashes of loved ones while carrying wreaths.
China has frequently been accused of under-reporting COVID deaths for political reasons, despite having one of the lowest official death tolls in the world.
The WHO stated in December that it had not received any information from China regarding any new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing’s policy change.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated in its most recent weekly report that China had reported 218,019 new weekly COVID cases as of January 1, adding that data gaps may be the result of authorities struggling to count cases.
Since the pandemic broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, different countries have used different approaches to counting COVID deaths.
According to Chinese health officials, COVID deaths can only be caused by pneumonia or respiratory failure in patients who had the virus.
Outside of China, experts on the disease claim that this strategy overlooks other well-known types of fatal COVID complications, such as blood clots, heart attacks, sepsis, and kidney failure.
Without immediate action, international health experts anticipate at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year. According to estimates provided by the British health data company Airfinity, approximately 9,000 people probably die from COVID each day in China.
A private-sector survey released on Thursday revealed a decline in services activity in December, indicating that rising COVID infections are hurting demand in China’s $17 trillion economy.
However, Asian equity markets were buoyed on Thursday by investors’ expectations that China’s dismantling of COVID controls will revive growth, which has slowed to its lowest rate in nearly 50 years.
Joanne Goh, an investment strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, stated that “China reopening has a big impact… worldwide” and that it would facilitate supply-chain crunches and boost tourism and consumption.
The global luxury retail market is expected to see a revival of demand after China lifts its travel restrictions this month. However, many consumers now see more reasons to do their high-end shopping locally.
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