China's COVID Data Shows No New Variant, WHO Highlights Death Rate

Illustration of COVID-19 in China. (Wikimedia Commons/zhizhou with)

JAKARTA - Data from China shows no new coronavirus variants have been found there, but the numbers also don't show how many people have died from the rapidly spreading outbreak in the country, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Wednesday.

Global disquiet has grown about the accuracy of China's reporting of the outbreak which has overwhelmed hospitals, leaving some funeral homes overwhelmed since Beijing abruptly scrapped its "zero COVID" policy.

The UN agency released the data provided by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a day after WHO officials met with Chinese scientists. China has been reporting daily deaths from COVID in single figures.

Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, told a media briefing the current figures published from China underrepresent the number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and "especially in terms of deaths." Citing Reuters, January 4

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency was seeking more rapid and regular data from China on hospitalizations and deaths.

"WHO is concerned about the risks to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccinations, including booster doses, to protect against hospitalization, severe illness and death," Tedros said.

Beijing's sudden halt from ultra-strict restrictions last month has spread the virus to China's 1.4 billion people, who have had little immunity after being protected since emerging in the city of Wuhan three years ago.

Health officials overseas have struggled to determine the scale of the outbreak and how to stop its spread, with more countries introducing measures such as pre-departure COVID tests for arrivals from China, moves Beijing has criticized.

Meanwhile, EU health officials met on Wednesday, to discuss a coordinated response to it.

China CDC analysis shows the dominance of Omicron BA.5.2 and BF.7 lineages among locally acquired infections, according to data reported by WHO.

It is known, Omicron is the dominant variant based on recent genome sequencing, confirming what scientists have said but removing concerns for now about new variants emerging.