China Is ‘Heavily’ Underreporting Number of COVID-19 Deaths, Says WHO

Small figurines are seen in front of the World Health Organization logo in this illustration taken on Febr. 11, 2022. Dado Ruvic/Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) has admitted that China is grossly underreporting the number of citizens who have died from COVID-19 infections, a criticism that comes at a time when the nation is said to be reeling under a massive increase in the number of infections and deaths.

The WHO is continuing to “appeal” to China for more information regarding its ongoing COVID-19 surge, according to a Jan. 11 news update. “WHO still believes that deaths are heavily underreported from China, and this is in relation to the definitions that are used but also to the need for doctors and those reporting in the public health system to be encouraged to report these cases and not discouraged,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO Executive Director.

“There is also a shift in the definition away from COVID pneumonia as the reporting disease, to COVID infection as the main basis for disease reporting.” Ryan expressed hope that this will encourage more reporting to the agency regarding the “true situation” of the COVID-19 outbreak on the mainland.

In December, Beijing changed the definition of COVID-19-related deaths, counting only those involving COVID-caused respiratory failure and pneumonia.

The UN agency is working with Chinese authorities in understanding various aspects of the current outbreak in the nation, including increases or decreases in hospitalizations, differences in fatality rates between the rural and urban areas, and virus sequencing, it said.

Worsening COVID-19 Outbreak

China reported just 10 COVID-related deaths in December 2022 while health authorities have been reporting five or fewer deaths throughout January. These numbers have been contested by various groups.

A December report from health data firm Airfinity stated that roughly 9,000 people in China were dying each day due to COVID-19—a number it expects to increase before the end of January. Airfinity is projecting 1.7 million COVID deaths in China during the four-month period from January to April.

A model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington predicts 300,000 COVID-19 deaths in China by April 1 and 1.25 million by the year-end.

Documents from an internal CCP conference leaked last month showed that as many as 248 million people were infected in the first 20 days of December.

In an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Yan Limeng, a Chinese virologist who accuses Beijing of covering up the pandemic, called the current situation in China “very concerning.” Yet, Beijing decided to reopen its border, she noted.

“We don’t know what exactly variants are circulating in China, although [the] government told people that [it] is Omicron. But the symptom is much more severe on average in the population, and transmission is very high,” Yan said.

“And also we see the death toll increasing like crazy, with a lot of more people having pneumonia, even [though] they’re the healthy adults.”

Virus Data

The WHO had met with officials from China in a Dec. 30 meeting to discuss the COVID-19 surge in the country. The organization called for the strengthening of viral sequencing, clinical management, and impact assessment.

“WHO again asked for regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation—including more genetic sequencing data, data on disease impact including hospitalizations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and deaths—and data on vaccinations delivered and vaccination status, especially in vulnerable people and those over 60 years old,” according to a Dec. 30 news release from the organization.

As of Jan. 3, 773 viral sequences from mainland China have been submitted to the GISAID EpiCoV database, out of which 564 sequences were collected after Dec. 1.

In a media briefing on Jan. 11, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the need for sharing medical data related to COVID-19.

Only 53 out of 194 countries provide data disaggregated by sex and age, he revealed while stressing that “the more data we have, the clearer a picture we have.” He also admitted that there is “under-reporting” of COVID-related deaths in China.