China: the state will no longer provide daily data on covid, but funeral homes are closing in some areas
China has stopped releasing daily data on Covid-19 cases since Sunday after figures failed to give a full picture as the Omicron tsunami rolls through the nation, straining the public health system in many cities.
“ We will no longer release daily information about the pandemic from now on,” China's National Health Commission said in a brief statement on Sunday.
"The Center for Disease Control and Prevention will publish relevant information about the pandemic for reference and research," the NHC added .
The statement did not provide any reason for the change or how often the CDC, a public health agency of the commission, would publish the data in the future. The NHC had released daily data on Covid-19 infections since January 21, 2020, during China's first coronavirus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan.
The daily data had served as an authoritative reference for the extent of outbreaks under China's former strict zero Covid policy, with details on infections, confirmed and asymptomatic, domestic and imported, and on the number of deaths, somewhat as it is success in Italy with daily data. However, the figures became meaningless after mandatory testing was dropped earlier this month as part of the easing of several zero-Covid measures.
China reported 4,128 cases of infection and no new deaths on Saturday, a week after it narrowed its definition of Covid-19 deaths – counting only those who died of respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus.
In this way, the Communist Party government tries on the one hand to reassure the population, erasing the weight of negative data, on the other it tries to hide the enormous failure of its epidemic policies, first based on demented lockdowns and then, when these they turned out to be so restrictive as to lead to riots, deciding to open everything suddenly. However, the situation is getting out of hand and in any case the emergency is also noted due to the widespread shortage of medicines against fever, starting with the common paracetamol. Even the assisted breathing machines are extremely lacking and many hospitals have agreed to a private regime, for a fee, to limit the number of hospitalized patients. A state-run funeral service center in the southern city of Guangzhou has suspended accepting new appointments for burial services until January 10 "due to intense pressure".
Normal cremation services will continue, it said in a statement Saturday.
Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, a major manufacturing hub, is recruiting volunteers to support its ambulance center to meet growing demand for medical assistance.
In general it is estimated that 18% of the population is currently infected, which means having approximately 130 million people who are sick. Almost half of the population of Beijing and the southwestern province of Sichuan have been infected, all on the eve of the Chinese New Year which risks spreading the virus in a capillary way even in the countryside.
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The article China: the state will no longer provide daily data on covid, but funeral homes close in some areas comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-lo-stato-non-fornira-piu-i-dati-giornalieri-sul-covid-ma-in-alcune-aree-chiudono-le-pompe-funebri/ on Sun, 25 Dec 2022 14:49:14 +0000.