'Keep Sharing COVID-19 Data With World': WHO Tells China

The World Health Organization has appealed that China keep sharing information about COVID-19 cases. 

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/FIT)

“WHO requested that this type of detailed information continued to be shared with us and the public.”

The World Health Organization has appealed to China that it keep sharing information about COVID-19 cases after the country revealed that approximately 60,000 people have succumbed to COVID-19 since December 2022.

Rise in COVID-19 deaths: After the country’s stringent zero-COVID policy was lifted, between 8 December and 12 January, 5,503 deaths were caused by respiratory failure due to COVID-19. 54,435 people died from cancer, heart disease, and other comorbidities escalated due to COVID-19.

What the WHO said: WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had a telephonic conversation with China’s Health Minister Ma Xiaowei. The WHO has also welcomed China’s announcement since it “allows for a better understanding of the epidemiological situation.”

But, experts say that since China’s National Health Commission is only counting, among fatalities, the deaths that occurred in hospitals, the real number of casualties might be higher.

Reuters quoted a health official as saying that the “national emergency peak has passed,” since an 83 percent decline has been seen in people consulting “fever clinics” “from a December 23 high.”

China’s official death toll, which currently stands at 5,273, might be doubled to 10,775 now.