China's Recommendendation Monitoring Deaths Due To COVID-19, WHO: Important For Comprehensive Understanding

Illustration of WHO. (Wikimedia Commons/Guilhem Vellut)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it recommended that China monitor deaths from COVID-19, to get a more complete picture of the impact of the spike in cases there.

China said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospital since ignoring a zero-COVID policy last month, a huge jump from the figures reported before facing international criticism of its COVID-19 data.

"WHO recommends monitoring deaths, which give us a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of COVID-19," the UN agency told Reuters.

"This is very important during the spike period when the health system is very limited," the WHO continued.

WHO added there was no definite time for another meeting with Chinese officials, after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke with Ma Xiaowei, director of China's National Health Commission, on the weekend, but will continue to work with China to provide advice and support.

Criticizing Beijing for not being honest about the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak that occurred, the WHO said on Saturday that Chinese authorities had provided information about deaths in hospitals and outpatients, allowing for a better understanding of the situation.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor atwaki Law, Washington DC, said China's decision to reveal more data was due to a "WHO push".

"Getting the more accurate death toll is a relief," he said.

"But it will be more important to get complete GSD (genetic sequence data) from the virus circulating in China. That's a huge global concern," he said.