China reports no deaths from COVID-19 after change in death toll

China said on Wednesday it had not recorded a single death from COVID-19 the day before, after changing the criteria for determining deaths from coronavirus, despite a wave of infections in the country.

Some hospitals are overcrowded, drugstore shelves are empty. crematoria stunned after the government decided to end its lockdown, quarantine and mass testing policies to contain the coronavirus.

China Sanitary restrictions have been in place since 2020 in the name of the so-called “zero covid” policy, which has protected the people most at risk and least vaccinated.

But the government canceled most of these measures without warning in early December amid growing public discontent and a significant impact on the economy. economy.

Since then, the number of cases has risen sharply, raising fears of high mortality among the elderly, especially the vulnerable.

Chinese government announced on Tuesday that only those who died directly from respiratory failure caused by coronavirus will be included in the mortality statistics COVID-19. According to the authorities, this “scientific” methodology gives a much more limited picture of the situation.

“After infection omicron variant, the main cause of death are the underlying diseases. Only a small proportion die directly from respiratory failure caused by COVID-19” said Wang Guiqiang, a Beijing health official.

The change in methodology means that a large number of deaths will no longer be recorded as a consequence of covid.

However, “WHO is very concerned about the development of the situation in China (…). To fully assess the risk of the situation, WHO needs more information on the severity of the disease, hospital admissions and the needs of intensive care units,” the President said this Wednesday. World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at his weekly press conference.

Numbers and Politics

omicron variant does not attack the lungs as severely as other strains COVID-19says health expert Yangzhong Huang of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank.

“This new definition is an inversion of the current international standard. […] what was considered death COVID-19 anyone who died of covid,” Huang said. It’s hard to say it’s not politically motivated,” he says.

Several cities now allow residents to go to work as normal even if they have symptoms COVID-19. A few weeks earlier, they would have been sent to a quarantine center in the name of a “zero covid” policy.

Meanwhile, workers at crematoria across the country’s northeast to southwest told AFP they are struggling to cope with the rise in deaths.

Beijing acknowledged last week that the extent of the outbreak had become “impossible” to track after mandatory testing ended.

Leading healthcare expert from China warned on Tuesday that the capital would face a surge in infections in the next two weeks, lasting until the end of January.

“We must act quickly and prepare feverish clinics and resources for serious and emergency treatment,” Wang Guangfa, a respiratory medicine expert at Peking University First Hospital, told the state-owned daily Global Times.

3049 new cases registered in the country COVID-19 and no death.

According to official figures, only seven patients died from COVID-19 since the restrictions have been lifted. Finally, on Wednesday, authorities reduced that number to six without any explanation.

The United States said on Tuesday it was ready to supply China vaccine COVID-19.

“In the interests of the international community, we are collectively helping China keep (the outbreak) under control,” Ned Price, spokesperson State Department.

AFP