LONDON/GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it recommends China monitor excess deaths from Covid-19 to get a fuller picture of the impact of the surge in cases there. low.
China said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with Covid-19 had died in hospital since it scrapped its zero Covid policy last month, a big jump from the numbers it reported before. face international criticism over its Covid-19 data.
“WHO recommends surveillance of excess mortality, which provides us with a more complete understanding of the impact of Covid-19,” the UN agency told Reuters in a statement, when asked about China.
“This is especially important during peak periods when the healthcare system is severely constrained.”
The WHO added that there was no fixed date for another meeting with Chinese officials after the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke with Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commissionover the weekend, but would continue to work with China to provide guidance and support.
After criticizing Beijing for its lack of candor about the scale of the outbreak, the WHO said on Saturday that Chinese authorities had provided it with information on hospital deaths and outpatient care that shed light on the disease. situation.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC, who follows the WHO closely, said China’s decision to reveal more data was due to “prompting from the WHO”.
“Getting more accurate death rates is refreshing,” he said. “But it would be even more important to get full GSDs (genetic sequence data) of the virus circulating in China. That’s the very big global concern.”
China said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with Covid-19 had died in hospital since it scrapped its zero Covid policy last month, a big jump from the numbers it reported before. face international criticism over its Covid-19 data.
“WHO recommends surveillance of excess mortality, which provides us with a more complete understanding of the impact of Covid-19,” the UN agency told Reuters in a statement, when asked about China.
“This is especially important during peak periods when the healthcare system is severely constrained.”
The WHO added that there was no fixed date for another meeting with Chinese officials after the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke with Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commissionover the weekend, but would continue to work with China to provide guidance and support.
After criticizing Beijing for its lack of candor about the scale of the outbreak, the WHO said on Saturday that Chinese authorities had provided it with information on hospital deaths and outpatient care that shed light on the disease. situation.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC, who follows the WHO closely, said China’s decision to reveal more data was due to “prompting from the WHO”.
“Getting more accurate death rates is refreshing,” he said. “But it would be even more important to get full GSDs (genetic sequence data) of the virus circulating in China. That’s the very big global concern.”
