Amid COVID surge, China’s health body stops publishing daily numbers

What you don’t know can’t hurt you appears to be the logic of China’s National Health Commission (NHC). Amid a massive surge in COVID cases in the country, the NHC has stopped publishing data on the number of daily coronavirus cases.

NHC did not publish figures for COVID cases on Sunday (December 25). It had providing data from the past three years.

“Relevant COVID information will be published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research,” the NHC said in a statement.

Also read: China limits how it defines COVID deaths in official count

NHC did not specify the reasons for the change or how frequently China CDC will update COVID information.

On its website, NHC had published data on daily COVID cases on December 23. The daily briefing was done on December 24.

According to NHC, “On December 23, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 4,128 new cases of confirmed infections.”

After the easing of Covid restrictions, China is experiencing a massive surge in coronavirus cases and hospitals are completely overwhelmed.

Also read: Massive surge in COVID cases in China; hospitals swamped with patients

According to a report on Radio Free Asia, nearly 250 million people may now be infected with COVID in China. The report cited a leaked government document circulating on social media.

“The document, which appeared to be the leaked minutes of a December 20 meeting of the country’s National Health Commission, estimated that some 248 million people became infected with COVID-19 from Dec. 1-20, or 17.65 percent of China’s population.

“New cases on Dec. 20 alone were estimated at around 37 million, in stark contrast to the mere thousands of cases detailed by official government figures for that day,” the report said.

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it is “very concerned” over the rising COVID cases in China and sought detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for ICU support.

WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus while addressing a news conference on Wednesday, said, “We continue to call on China to share the data and conduct the studies we have requested, and which we continue to request.”

“As I have said many times before, all hypotheses about the origins of this pandemic remain on the table,” he added.

Further, he said, “At the same time, WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China, with increasing reports of severe disease. In order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground, WHO needs more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for ICU support.”