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New Delhi
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not received data from China on new Covid hospitalisations since the government lifted its Zero-Covid policy, a report by news agency Reuters said on Friday. China is racing against time to combat the spike in infections with an overburdened health infrastructure, a shortage of life-saving medicines and a low rate of full vaccination among the elderly.
Weekly reports of the WHO showed a rise in Covid hospitalisations in China running up to the government's December 7 decision to ease restrictions on movement that were imposed to stamp out any transmission of the virus, the report said.
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According to a graph by the WHO, hospitalisations peaked through to December 4, which was the highest reported figure in the country since the onset of the pandemic. But the figures were absent in the last two weekly reports.
The United Nations health agency, however, said that gaps in hospitalisation data might be due to Chinese authorities struggling to tally infections.
"I wouldn't like to say that China is actively not telling us what's going on. I think they're behind the curve," WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan said, Reuters reported.
The Chinese government has faced criticism for downplaying the spread of the pandemic and according to experts, the recently introduced criteria for identifying Covid deaths will "underestimate'' the actual figure.
The criteria say that only those Covid patients who directly died of respiratory failure caused by the virus would be counted under Covid death statistics.
Meanwhile, United States Secretary of States Antony Blinken on Thursday called on China to share details on the pandemic.
"It is very important for all countries, including China, to focus on people getting vaccinated, making testing and treatment available and, importantly, sharing information with the world about what they're experiencing," Blinken told reporters and renewed an offer to share American vaccines with China.
(With inputs from agencies)
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