WHO Says China May Be Struggling to Count COVID Cases
Official figures from China have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done across the country following the recent easing of the strict zero-COVID policy.
"In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up," WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said.
"I wouldn't like to say that China is actively not telling us what's going on. I think they're behind the curve," he added.
Dozens of hearses lined up outside a Beijing crematorium Wednesday, even as China reported no new COVID-19 deaths in its growing outbreak, sparking criticism of its virus accounting as the capital braces for a surge in cases.
The WHO said it was ready to work with China to improve the way the country collects data on critical factors such as hospitalizations and deaths.
Ryan noted that there had been a surge in vaccination rates in the country over the last weeks, adding that it remained to be seen whether enough vaccination could be done in the coming weeks to stave off the impact of an omicron wave.
The WHO would encourage work to import vaccines, but also to find arrangements where vaccines can be produced in as many places as possible, Ryan said.
China has nine domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines approved for use, more than any other country, but they have not been updated to target the highly infectious omicron variant.
Berlin sent its first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, a German government spokesperson said Wednesday, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.