WHO asks accurate deaths, ICU admission, severity of COVID from China for risk assessment

As China struggled to contain the fresh spike of novel coronavirus infections, driven by the mutated BF.7 Omicron's subvariant, the head of the World Health Organization said he was "very concerned" about the situation, adding that Beijing must provide detailed information about the severity and the death toll. China's sudden lifting of its draconian Zero Covid measures caused nationwide cluster outbreaks, triggering widespread drug shortages and overwhelming medical facilities.

Death bodies have reportedly been piling up at the crematoria across several provinces as National Heath Commission struggles to update the confirmed cases due to the slow pace of testing. WHO on Wednesday made demands for more transparent data on the fatalities and cases, in order to make a comprehensive risk assessment amid fears of the global outbreak and a sudden spike of cases. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, at a briefing noted that he was "very concerned" over the increased reports of severe disease coming from the country. 

"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," Tedros said at a press conference.

"WHO is supporting China to focus its efforts on vaccinating people at the highest risk across the country, and we continue to offer our support for clinical care and protecting its health system," said Ghebreyesus.

Tedros meanwhile urged the Chinese authorities to share the data and conduct the studies that were requested by the health agency. "As I have said many times before, all hypotheses about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic remain on the table." He asked China to ramp up the vaccination efforts and offered support for clinical care and protecting its health system. WHO's remarks came as Germany announced that it has sent its first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates as chances of global spread to at least 10% of the population within 90 days have been speculated by the scientists.

On its official data, China registered a 5,241 death toll on Dec 21, and a day prior it refused to log deaths from pneumonia, and respiratory, and organ failure. Deaths among patients with pre-existing illnesses are not tallied as the COVID-19 deaths by health authorities in Beijing. WHO on Wednesday urged that China must release the official count of the COVID-19-related death toll including among those with pre-existing health conditions.

In other countries, authorities stipulate that any death that occurs due to COVID-19 infection as being one of the factors or contributors shall be counted in the COVID-19 death toll.  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded that China provides accurate information regarding hospital and intensive care unit admissions (ICU), “in order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground.” He noted that while COVID deaths dropped by 90% as countries managed to control the spread of the infections, there were now uncertainties about the virus that explains the pandemic is far from over.

“Limiting your diagnosis of ‘death from covid’ to someone with a covid-positive test and respiratory failure will very much underestimate the true death toll associated with covid,” said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program.

“We don’t want the definitions to get in the way of actually getting the right data,” Ryan added.

China risks 1.3 to 2.1 million COVID-19-related deaths

China's relaxation of the stringent COVID-19 measures might end up in a death toll of 1.3 and 2.1 million, London-based global health intelligence and analytics firm predicted earlier yesterday. If the Chinese administration scrapped its draconian zero-COVID policy millions are expected to die due to the contraction of the novel coronavirus due to the country's low vaccination and booster rates, and lack of hybrid immunity, Airfinity asserted in its analysis. 

"Mainland China has very low levels of immunity across its population. Its citizens were vaccinated with domestically produced jabs Sinovac and Sinopharm which have been proven to have significantly lower efficacy and provide less protection against infection and death," Airfinity's analysis stated.  "As a result of these factors, our analysis shows if mainland China sees a similar wave to Hong Kong's in February, its healthcare system could be pushed to capacity as there could be between 167 and 279 million cases nationwide, which could lead to between 1.3 and 2.1 million deaths," it continued to add.