On December 30, 2022, travelers from China will be tested at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, to determine if they are carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. RYU YOUNG-SUK /AP
Chinese health authorities said Thursday, December 29, that their data on the number of deaths from Covid-19 had always been transparent, despite a discrepancy with the reality of statistics previously provided by Beijing.
“China has always released its data on Covid-19 deaths and severe cases in a desire for openness and transparency,” Jiao Yahui, a senior official at the National Health Commission (NHC), told the health ministry Thursday night. His comments are reported by the state agency New China.
The country has been going through a wave of contamination of unprecedented proportions since abruptly abandoning its so-called “zero Covid” policy earlier this month. Latest relaxation so far: end of the mandatory quarantines on January 8th upon arrival in Chinese territory.
A disease control agency identified 5,500 new cases in China on Friday and just one death. But since the end of mass testing and the new, narrower definition of a death attributed to Covid, these statistics no longer seem to keep up with reality. According to experts at the Airfinity Center, the death toll in China could be as high as 9,000 a day right now and could reach 1.7 million by the end of April 2023.
Also read: Covid-19: The protective measures taken by certain countries towards travelers from China are “understandable”, says the WHO
relaxation of health regulations
Jiao Yahui reminded that only patients who succumbed to respiratory failure caused by the virus after undergoing a positive PCR test were considered victims of Covid-19. In other countries, patients who died within 28 days of a positive test are counted as Covid-19 deaths. “From beginning to end, China has always been committed to adhering to the scientific criteria for assessing deaths from Covid-19, which are in line with international criteria,” Jiao said.
In continuity with the easing of restrictions, China will reclassify Covid-19 as a category B infectious disease on Jan. 8, down from A previously, which will allow it to further relax health regulations. Liang Wannian, head of anti-Covid-19 policy at the NHC, told a news conference the decision was reasonable, scientifically and legally sound, Xinhua reported.
This change does not mean that China is opening the door wide to the virus, but that it is allocating more resources to key positions such as disease control and treating infected people, Liang Wannian said.
Also read: Article reserved for our Covid-19 subscribers: China reopens to the world despite the outbreak of cases on its territory