As leaked report claims 25 cr affected by coronavirus, China stops publishing daily Covid updates

China stops sharing daily Covid cases updates as leaked report claimed country reported 25 crore cases in 20 days.

Beijing, Dec 25: China has reportedly stopped sharing daily updates on Covid-19 cases from Sunday, The Global Times reported.

The development comes after a leaked report which claimed that almost 25 crore were infected with the virus in the last 20 days.

"China's National Health Commission (NHC) will stop publishing daily COVID-19 case data from Sunday. Instead, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release COVID-related info for study and reference," NHC said in a statement.

The NHC, in its daily report on Saturday, said that China mainland reported 4,128 new cases of confirmed infections and no new death in the country. On December 23, 1,760 patients recovered from the illnes and 28,865 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. The number of serious cases increased by 99.

Citing leaked government documents, Radio Free Asia has stated that 24.8 crore people were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, or 17.65 per cent of China's population.

The report released by the authorities on Covid on December 20 is different from the reality as nearly 3.7 crore were estimated, according to Radio Free Asia. A Chinese journalist confirmed to the radio on Thursday that the leaked document was genuine.

The report claims that the document was leaked from the 20-minute meeting of National Health Commission.

It comes after British-based health data firm Airfinity claimed that China is likely reporting over 10 lakh cases with over 5,000 deaths in a day. "Using the trends in regional data our team of epidemiologists has forecast the first peak to be in regions where cases are currently rising and a second peak driven by later surges in other Chinese provinces," Airfinity said in a statement.

The Airfinity model estimates case rates could reach 3.7 million a day in a January peak and 4.2 million a day in March 2023. Airfinity's Head of Vaccines and Epidemiology Dr Louise Blair said, "China has stopped mass testing and is no longer reporting asymptomatic cases. The combination means the official data is unlikely to be a true reflection of the outbreak being experienced across the country.

"China has also changed the way it records COVID-19 deaths to only include those who die from respiratory failure or pneumonia after testing positive. This is different to other countries that record deaths within a time frame of a positive test or where COVID-19 is recorded to have attributed to the cause of death. This change could downplay the extent of deaths seen in China."