The comments came as more countries are imposing travel restrictions on visitors from China in the wake of a steep rise in COVID infections in the country. Hospitals and crematoriums are overwhelmed since Beijing last month abruptly lifted more than three years of hardline restrictions.
A senior doctor at one of Shanghai’s top hospitals said 70 percent of the megacity’s population may now have been infected with COVID-19, state media reported on Tuesday. International health experts have predicted at least one million COVID-related deaths in China this year if no urgent action is taken.
Yet China has only recorded 22 COVID deaths since December and has dramatically narrowed the criteria for classifying such fatalities. It counts only those cases that involve COVID-caused pneumonia or respiratory failure – meaning that Beijing’s own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality. Ryan, the WHO official, pointed out that the definition Beijing is using “requires a respiratory failure” associated with a COVID infection for a death to be registered as a COVID death.