China urged the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (05.01.2023) to adopt an “impartial” position on the management of COVID-19, after the body criticized Beijing for its “too narrow” definition to count deaths from the virus.
“We hope that the WHO secretariat will maintain a scientific, objective and impartial position and strive to play a positive role in the global response to the challenge of the pandemic,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters Wednesday that official statistics did not reflect the real impact of the virus in China, which is facing a surge in infections following the dismantling of the “zero covid” strategy in December.
China responded Thursday that it “maintained close cooperation with WHO” and had “always shared relevant information and data with the international community, in an open and transparent attitude.”
The criteria for officializing deaths
“According to an incomplete balance, there have been about 60 technical exchanges between the two sides since COVID-19 was first detected, on issues including prevention and control of COVID-19, treatment, vaccine research and development, and tracing the origin of the virus,” Mao Ning said.
China’s official toll shows only 23 coronavirus deaths since December, after authorities drastically narrowed the criteria for counting a COVID-19 death.
About a dozen countries have imposed COVID tests for passengers coming from China, citing in several cases the Asian country’s lack of transparency about the outbreak data. China criticized this measure as “unacceptable.”
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