• In China, the National Health Commission has announced that it will stop publishing its figures on the Covid-19 epidemic.

  • Since the lifting of strict health restrictions on December 7, the epidemic figures appeared to be underestimated.

  • Chinese netizens greeted the news with derision.

China's National Health Commission, which serves as the country's ministry, announced on Sunday that it would no longer publish daily figures for Covid cases and deaths, as it had done since early 2020. It did not gave no explanation.

But these statistics no longer reflected the unprecedented wave of contamination that has hit China since the abandonment, on December 7, of the very strict health measures of the “zero Covid” policy.

Previously, quasi-compulsory PCR tests made it possible to reliably follow the epidemic trend.

But infected people now carry out self-tests at home and rarely report the results to the authorities, which prevents having reliable figures.

“The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will publish information related to the epidemic, for reference and research purposes,” she adds, however, without specifying the type or frequency of the data. which will be published.

Decision mocked online

The Chinese, who saw a total discrepancy between the contamination of a large part of their relatives and the official statistics, greeted the announcement with derision.

"Eventually they wake up and understand that they can't fool people anymore," wrote a user of Chinese social network Weibo.

“It was the best and biggest fake statistics office in the country,” said another.

China has only announced six Covid deaths since restrictions were lifted.

However, many seniors do not have a complete vaccination schedule and find themselves on the front line against the virus.

Half a million people are infected daily in Qingdao (east), a city of 10 million inhabitants, a municipal official said this week, quoted by the official press.

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