China: China is underreporting the number of deaths due to the COVID-19 epidemic: WHO

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that although China is providing more information on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still grossly underreporting the number of deaths.

China is not telling the exact number of deaths

The COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, said there were gaps in the information coming from China. We are working with China to plug these loopholes. Significantly, after the end of zero-covid measures in December last year, COVID-19 infection has increased in China. Although China is denying that it is hiding the figures for Covid deaths, experts from all over the world, including the World Health Organization, believe that China is deliberately underreporting the number of Kovid deaths.

Due to the increasing infection of Kovid in China, many countries including India have banned travelers coming from China. Beijing has criticized the move as politically motivated. Despite the surge in Covid cases, no new Covid variant has been detected in China. According to the World Health Organisation, this is due to a lack of testing.

China changed the criteria for Covid deaths

The zero Covid policy was abolished in China about a month ago. This led to a rapid spurt in Covid cases here and according to reports, there was a shortage of even hospitals and cremation grounds. In December, China changed the criteria for marking Covid deaths. This brought down the death toll from Covid significantly as per official figures.

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