WHO: China’s data on the coronavirus is incomplete – 218,000 new cases and 648 deaths in 4 days

The data provided by Beijing do not offer an accurate picture of the situation in the country, where it is on the rise coronavirus points out the World Health Organization. Today the Health Organization noted in its weekly report on the disease that Beijing has announced since January 1, 2023, 208,018 new cases of covid and 648 deaths.

At the same time, the WHO yesterday reiterated its support for the decision of many countries to require a negative covid test from travelers coming from China. At the same time, EU member states reached an agreement under which the bloc’s 27 countries are “actively encouraged” to ask all travelers coming from China to present a negative covid test, no more than 48 hours before departure .

“The current numbers published by China do not represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care units and especially in terms of deaths,” said Michael Ryan, who is in charge of health management. crises at the WHO during a press conference.

The US, whose authorities are now requiring a negative covid test from most travelers from China, welcomed the role of WHERE and underlined that the measures taken are linked to the lack of transparency on the part of Beijing.

US President Joe Biden yesterday expressed his concern about the way Beijing is handling the outbreak of covid. “They are very sensitive (…) when we say that they have not been so honest,” he told reporters.

Beijing on Tuesday condemned the decision by countries to impose tests on travelers from China, calling the measure “unacceptable” and threatening “countermeasures”. “We are taking the measures we consider justified, depending on the development of the situation in China, which are based on the discussions between our experts,” replied a representative of the European Commission yesterday.

In the meantime, the coronavirus is causing concern to the WHO, “with more than 13 million cases reported in the past month”, noting that this is a lower number than the real one, reports APE-MPE, citing Reuters and AFP. “But the most worrying thing is that we had a 15% increase in deaths in the last month,” said Maria van Kerkov, head of the WHO technical team on covid.

WHO mainly monitors the XBB.1.5 substrain of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has been detected in 29 countries so far, mostly in Europe and the US. “It is the most contagious substrain that has been observed so far,” emphasized van Kerkov.