China stops publishing daily Covid-19 outbreak figures
Chinese health authorities have announced the end of the publication of their daily assessment of the epidemic.
Here, masked people going to work in the morning rush hour, in Beijing, December 20, 2022. AP - Andy Wong
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
2 mins
Overwhelmed by an unprecedented Covid wave, the Chinese health authorities announce the end of the publication of their daily assessment of the epidemic.
These official statistics have been controversial since the abandonment of measures to control and prevent viral pneumonia three weeks ago.
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From our correspondent in Beijing
,
After the "
zero Covid
", the "
zero death
".
Despite a record increase in cases of contamination nationwide, no death has been officially reported in the past five days by the authorities.
Peak for Lunar New Year
The National Health Commission first announced the end of the consideration of asymptomatic people in its assessments, then the redefinition of the criteria
for Covid deaths
.
As of December 25, the institution therefore ends the publication of daily figures for the epidemic.
These statistics are called into question, especially when they are compared with those disseminated by local authorities.
►Also read
Covid-19 in China: nearly 250 million Chinese infected in twenty days
This Sunday, December 25, the Zhejiang government sounded the alarm.
This province in eastern China, which has as many inhabitants as Italy or South Africa, is registering 1 million new infections a day, a number which should soon double.
The peak of infections is estimated to come around the Lunar New Year, in late January according to provincial authorities, when tens of millions of Chinese
will travel for the
Spring Festival holiday.
Herd immunity
“China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,
underlines a note from the Capital Economics institute quoted by
the Reuters agency
.
Authorities are making almost no effort now to slow the spread of infections, and with the start of migration ahead of the Lunar New Year, any part of the country that is currently unaffected by the Covid wave will soon be
. ”
The new
herd immunity strategy, aiming to achieve a population immunity rate approaching 80% by next summer.
After talking about the first Covid wave, state media now talk about the “
last Covid wave
”.
Zhong Nanshan, the pulmonologist and major figure in the fight against the epidemic, having set the “
return to normal life
” for next March.
The World Health Organization, for its part, claims to have received no data on hospitalizations linked to viral pneumonia in China since the Chinese government relaxed health restrictions.
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