China’s COVID data not giving accurate picture of hospitalizations, deaths: WHO

China’s COVID-19 data is not giving an accurate picture of the situation there and underrepresents the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease, a senior official at the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

The comment came as the UN agency prepares to meet with Chinese scientists again on Thursday as part of a wider briefing among member states on the global COVID-19 situation.

“We believe that the current numbers being published from China underrepresent the true impact of the disease in terms of
hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, particularly in terms of death,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies director, at a media briefing.

Earlier in the briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the agency is “concerned” about the surge in COVID-19 infections in China and urged Beijing again to deliver rapid and regular data on hospitalization and death there.

“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,” he said at a media briefing.

“WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalization, severe disease and death.”

(Reporting Jennifer Rigby in London and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Geneva; Writing by Josephine Mason; Editing by Alex Richardson and Philippa Fletcher)