China has criticized the World Health Organization for saying the country has not been transparent in reporting COVID-19 deaths. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday that Beijing has maintained close communication with the WHO, holding five technical exchanges over the past month, the last on Wednesday.
Spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters that the two sides have discussed current clinical treatment, epidemic development, monitoring and vaccination.
He further reported that local health authorities have held bilateral meetings with the EU and Australia on the subject. Genome data from new cases has also been shared regularly through the Global Avian Influenza Data Sharing Initiative (GISAID), Wang said.
The WHO had said this week that while China has been sharing enough data on the virus, it has been “heavily reporting” deaths caused by the disease.
“The WHO still believes that deaths are underreported in China,” its emergencies director, Michael Ryan, told reporters. “We don’t yet have adequate information to do a full and comprehensive risk assessment.”
China has shared COVID-related data in a timely, open and transparent manner, Wang said, and is willing to continue technical exchanges to better meet the challenges of the epidemic and protect people’s lives and health.
“We hope that the WHO can scientifically and rationally assess the prevention and control of COVID in China, and comment objectively and fairly,” Wang said.
Liang Wannian, head of China’s COVID-19 response expert panel under the NHC, said on Wednesday that China has reported all variants detected in the country to date to the WHO and will continue to do so.
China has been reporting five or fewer deaths a day for the past month, but the figures being reported are inconsistent with the long lines seen at funeral homes. The country did not report data on COVID deaths on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Global Times reported that the peak of infection in the country is subsiding, although the healthcare system is still under massive strain.
(With contributions from agencies)
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