that the Chinese underrepresented knowledge on several fronts, some of the UN agency’s most critical comments to date.
PATIENTS FLOOD SHANGHAI HOSPITALS AFTER CHINA RELAXES COVID POLICIES
China abandoned its strict COVID controls last month after protests opposing them, abandoning a policy that had its 1. 4 billion more people from the virus for three years.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a normal press conference in Beijing that China has transparently and temporarily shared COVID knowledge with the WHO, saying “China’s epidemic scenario is controllable. “
“Facts have shown that China has always, in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness and transparency, maintained close communication and shared applicable knowledge with WHO in a timely manner,” Mao said.
Chinese officials and experts described the latest on Thursday at an online assembly with the WHO and its member states, diplomats and China’s National Health Commission said.
China reported one new COVID death on the mainland on Wednesday, more than the previous day, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.
Ryan said China’s figures underaccounted for hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths, and said Beijing’s definition of COVID-related deaths is too narrow.
Hours later, U. S. President Joe Biden expressed fears over China’s handling of a COVID outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes.
“They are very delicate. . . when we recommend that they haven’t been so open,” Biden told reporters.
France’s fitness minister expressed fears, while Germany’s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach expressed fears about a new COVID subvariant linked to emerging hospitalizations in the U. S. U. S.
THE STATE DEPARTMENT ASKS CHINA TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT ABOUT THE COVID-19 FLYOVER, THE ORIGINS OF THE VIRUS
Crowded hospital
The United States is one of more than a dozen countries that have imposed restrictions on travelers from China. Germany announced stricter regulations on Thursday.
China, which has criticized such border controls, its border with its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would reopen on Sunday for the first time in 3 years.
The ferry between the city and Macau’s gambling center would also resume on the same day, Hong Kong’s government said on Thursday.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways is expected to more than double its flights to mainland China on Thursday.
Millions of others will travel to China later this month for the Lunar New Year holiday, an event the WHO says could lead to another wave of infections without higher vaccination rates and other precautions.
China downplayed the gravity of the situation. The state-run Global Times wrote Wednesday that COVID had peaked in Beijing and cities, bringing up interviews with doctors.
But on Thursday, at a hospital in the Shanghai suburb of Qingpu district, bedridden patients lined the corridors of the emergency medical care center and main ward, most of them elderly and several breathing with oxygen tanks, a Reuters witness said.
A sign indicated that patients had to wait an average of hours to be seen.
The staff declared the death of an elderly patient and placed a note on the floor frame with the cause of death “respiratory failure”.
Police patrolled outside a nearby crematorium, where mourners wore wreaths and waited to collect the ashes of their loved ones.
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Data gaps
With one of the lowest official COVID death rates in the world, China has been accused of failing to report for political reasons.
In December, the WHO said it had obtained information from China on new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing’s policy change.
In its most recent weekly report, the WHO said China reported 218,019 new weekly COVID cases as of Jan. 1, adding that gaps in knowledge may be due only to the government suffering to count cases.
Methods for counting COVID deaths have varied from country to country since the pandemic broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Chinese fitness officials have said deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients inflamed with the virus are classified as COVID deaths.
Disease experts outside China say their method overlooks other widely identified types of fatal COVID complications, from blood clots and heart attacks to sepsis and kidney failure.
International fitness experts expect at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year without taking urgent action. British fitness knowledge company Airfinity has estimated that around 9,000 other people in China will likely die every day from COVID.
Rising COVID infections are hurting demand in China’s $17 trillion economy, and a private sector survey Thursday showed activity slowing in December.
But investors expect China’s dismantling of COVID controls to revive the expansion that slipped to its lowest rate in nearly a part of a century, with hopes boosting Asian stock markets on Thursday.
“The reopening of China has a big impact. . . around the world,” said Joanne Goh, investment strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, saying it would encourage tourism and entry and alleviate chain difficulties of origin.
The end of restrictions in China this month is expected to increase demand in the global luxury retail market, however, many consumers now see more reasons to buy high-quality products locally.