Chinese state media have downplayed the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in China following the recent lifting of restrictions, as local specialists later today will update the World Health Organization (WHO), which hopes to have accurate information on the epidemiological situation and the development of the virus.
The People’s Daily, the official press organ of the Chinese Communist Party, in its Tuesday edition, relays statements by Chinese experts suggesting that the majority of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus are currently developing only relatively mild forms of COVID-19.
“Severe and critical forms of the disease account for 3 to 4 percent of infected patients currently admitted to special hospitals in Beijing,” said Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital, as quoted by the newspaper.
Conflicting testimonies
Meanwhile, Kang Yan, head of Sichuan University’s West China Tianfu Hospital, said a total of 46 patients were hospitalized in the intensive care unit over the past three weeks, about 1 percent symptomatic infections. But testimonies on the ground contradict these statements and have been reporting overwhelmed hospitals and funeral homes for the past two weeks.
In Shanghai, the emergency room at Zhongshan Hospital was overflowing with patients, mostly the elderly, on Tuesday, a Portal reporter said.
Some lay infused, on stretchers and blankets while dozens of others waited around waiting for a doctor’s visit, with no ascertainment of the proportion of patients who had contracted COVID-19.
The move away from zero-COVID-19 policy in early December, amid pressure from growing popular protests in China, led to an explosion of contamination, raising concerns about the emergence of new variants in particular.
Health Measures for Chinese Travelers
The forthcoming lifting of restrictions on international travel from China on Jan. 8 therefore prompted several countries – including France – to reintroduce health control measures at borders for travelers from China last week.
China’s Foreign Ministry ruled on Tuesday that those regulations were “simply unreasonable” and had “no scientific basis”.
“We are ready to improve our communication with the world,” a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry told reporters on Tuesday. “But we are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate epidemic prevention and control measures for political ends, and we will take appropriate action in various situations based on the principle of reciprocity,” she said.
sincerity of the data concerned
While the sincerity of the epidemiological data provided by China since the beginning of the epidemic is already the subject of many reservations (with a total of less than 5,300 deaths reported since the end of 2019, compared to almost 158,000 in France, for example). China’s National Health Commission announced in late December that it would stop publishing daily epidemiological reports on contagion and deaths without explanation.
The WHO has repeatedly urged Chinese health authorities in recent days to regularly share accurate and timely information on the virus circulation and epidemic situation, including the number of hospital admissions, deaths and vaccine coverage status. .
sequencing
The UN organization specifically invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on the genome sequencing of virus strains currently circulating in the country during a meeting of its COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group scheduled for Tuesday afternoon (Geneva time, where the organization is based). is. .
But these calls for transparency may not be heard any more than the previous ones, experts say. “I don’t think China will be very sincere in sharing information,” said Alfred Wu, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the University of Singapore.
“They will either choose not to share (that information) or say nothing happened, or nothing new. In my opinion, one can assume that there is nothing new (…), but the fundamental problem is that the issue of China’s transparency remains,” he added.