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Geneva (AFP) – The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized on Wednesday the new way of accounting for deaths from Covid-19 in China and stated that official statistics do not reflect the true impact of the epidemic in the country.
The WHO also insisted that it supported the decision to request negative tests for Covid-19 from travelers from China, as several countries have done.
For its part, the European Union (EU) agreed on Wednesday to urge all 27 member countries to require tests of less than 48 hours from travelers from China before their trip.
“We believe that the current figures published by China underrepresent the real impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, intensive care admissions and especially in terms of deaths,” Michael Ryan, head of the organization for the management of health emergency situations.
China is currently facing its worst outbreak of infections after the lifting, in early December, of its ‘Zero Covid’ policy.
Despite the wave of cases, the country reports few deaths linked to Covid-19 after a controversial change in counting methodology. Now, only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to the coronavirus are counted in the statistics.
“We think this definition is too narrow,” Ryan said.
Last week, the WHO met with the Chinese authorities to discuss the explosion in the number of infections and hospitalizations.
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“These figures are useful to WHO and the world, and we urge all countries to share them. The data remains essential for WHO to be able to make regular, rapid and robust assessments of the risks associated with the current situation and adapt its advice and guidelines accordingly,” he said.
“With such a high circulation (of the coronavirus) in China and the absence of complete data (…) it is understandable that some countries take restrictive measures,” Tedros continued.
The United States will require negative tests for most travelers from China starting Thursday, saying the move was a result of Beijing’s lack of transparency.
The WHO is “in the best position to make an assessment” thanks to its contacts with the Chinese authorities, judged the spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price.
China condemned the new restrictions on a dozen countries on Tuesday and warned it might take “countermeasures” in retaliation.
We take the measures that we consider justified, adapted to the evolution of the situation in China and based on discussions among our experts,” a spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said on Wednesday.
Last week, Spain, Italy and France unilaterally decided to require negative tests from travelers from China.
Overnight, EU member states agreed to coordinate their response to the explosion of cases in China.
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland will also respond in a coordinated manner together with the countries of the European bloc.
The EU encourages its member countries to require negative tests for Covid-19 less than 48 hours from travelers from China before their trip.
He also agreed to suggest that travelers wear “a mask”, “random tests” upon arrival and the control of “wastewater from airports with international flights and planes arriving from China”, according to a statement from the Swedish Presidency of the EU.
Although member states will remain free to implement the recommendations adopted at EU level, “everyone understands that if we don’t act together, there will be holes in the system,” added a Commission spokesperson.
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