The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that it recommended that China monitor excess mortality from COVID-19 to get a fuller picture of the impact of the surge in cases there.
China said on Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospital since it abandoned its zero-COVID policy last month, a big jump from the numbers it reported before facing international criticism over its COVID data. -19.
“The WHO recommends monitoring excess mortality, which provides us with a fuller understanding of the impact of COVID-19,” the UN agency told Reuters in a statement when asked about China.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended China monitor excess mortality from COVID-19 to gauge the severity of its latest surge in cases.
(REUTERS/Staff/File photo)
“This is especially important during peak periods when the healthcare system is severely constrained.”
The WHO added that there was no set time for another meeting with Chinese officials after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke with Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commission, over the weekend, but that it would continue to work with China to provide advice and support. .
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Criticizing Beijing for not being forthright 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 gave it a better understanding of the situation.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC, who closely follows the WHO, said China’s decision to release more data was due to “incitement from the WHO.”
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“Getting more accurate death figures is refreshing,” he said. “But it would be even more important to obtain full GSD (genetic sequence data) of the virus circulating in China. That is the big global concern.”
