China's media downplays the severity of the covid outbreak as the WHO seeks information

 

Prior to a Tuesday briefing by its scientists to the World Health Organization, which is looking for a "deep debate" on the evolution of the virus, state media in China downplayed the severity of an increase in COVID-19 infections.

The reliability of China's case and mortality data has come under increased scrutiny both domestically and internationally in the wake of the country's dramatic U-turn on COVID regulations on December 7.

China's foreign ministry referred to some nations' restrictions on travel admission as "simply illogical" and claimed they "lacked scientific basis."

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, spokeswoman for the foreign ministry Mao Ning said, "We are prepared to improve dialogue with the globe.

"However, we will take equivalent steps in various circumstances in accordance with the concept of reciprocity and are vehemently opposed to attempts to manipulate the epidemic preventive and control measures for political goals."

Following protests that represented the greatest display of public disobedience during President Xi Jinping's decade in office and coincided with the economy's slowest growth in nearly half a century, China abandoned its "zero-COVID" strategy.

Funeral homes have reported a rise in demand for their services as the virus spreads unchecked, and international health experts estimate that China will have at least one million fatalities this year.

China announced three additional COVID fatalities on Monday, bringing the country's total since the start of the pandemic to 5,253.

Chinese experts were quoted as saying on Tuesday by the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, that the virus's disease was generally mild for most people.

According to Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, "severe and critical illnesses account for 3% to 4% of infected patients now admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing."

In the previous three weeks, a total of 46 patients—or around 1% of symptomatic infections—had been admitted to intensive care units, according to Kang Yan, director of West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University.

According to a Reuters witness, the emergency room at the Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai was jam-packed with patients on Tuesday.