Absence of WHO data suggests, China isn’t being truthful about COVID-19 data

Geneva, Dec 23: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has received no data from Chignon the new COVID-19 hospitalisations since Beijing lifted its zero-COVID-19 policy.

This has raised questions about China hiding data as the media reports a massive surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country. WHO authorities have however said that the gap in data may be due to Chinese authorities struggling to tally the cases.

The weekly reports by WHO show that there are rising hospitalisations for COVID-19 in China following the December 7 decision to lift COVID-19 curbs. The curbs were lifted owing to massive protests in China, following which the number of cases shot up.

According to a WHO graph, the cases peaked at 28,859 through to December 4. This is the highest reported figure in China since COVID-19 emerged three years back. However figures have been absent in the last two reports.

China has been accused of downplaying the numbers since the outbreak of COVID-19. Experts say that its narrow criteria for identifying deaths will underestimate the true toll. Many estimates have suggested there would be a large number of deaths ahead and China has been racing to bolster its health system.

Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University said that the missing data is highly suspicious.

He told Reuters, 'what it tells me is that China is hiding data that are vital for understanding the full impact of its decision to end its zero-COVID-19 policy.

"I wouldn't like to say that China is actively not telling us what's going on. I think they're behind the curve," WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan had said while posting out to possible capacity issues.

According to global rules on disease outbreaks, countries are required to communicate information on ongoing outbreaks.

Adam Kamradt-Scott, professor of Global Public Health at the European University Institute, said that countries frequently hide the extent of the disease outbreaks. It is hard to criticise China when there are other countries which have not reported COVID-19 cases at all, he also added.