• China’s state media downplays the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• WHO encourages China to periodically disclose real-time information on the Covid situation.
• EU health officials will meet Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response to the outbreak.

The state media of China downplayed the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the country on Tuesday, with scientists set to brief the World Health Organization (WHO) on the virus’s evolution later in the day.

China’s 7 December U-turn on Covid measures, as well as the veracity of its case and fatality data, have come under growing scrutiny domestically and internationally, prompting several nations to apply travel restrictions.

The policy move was precipitated by demonstrations over the “zero Covid” approach championed by President Xi Jinping and coincided with China’s worst economic growth in nearly half a century.

As the epidemic goes mostly uncontrolled, funeral homes report an increase in demand for their services, and foreign health experts project that at least one million people will die in the country this year.

On Monday, China reported three more Covid deaths, up from one on Sunday. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the official death toll stands at 5,253.

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In an article published on Tuesday, People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, reported numerous Chinese experts as stating that the virus produced a relatively moderate illness in the great majority of people.

“Severe and critical illnesses account for 3% to 4% of infected patients currently admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing,” Tong Zhaohui, Vice President of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told the newspaper.

Kang Yan, director of the West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University, reported that 46 critically ill patients were brought to intensive care units over the past three weeks, representing approximately 1% of symptomatic infections.

More than 80% of residents in the southwestern province of Sichuan have been affected, according to local health authorities.

Friday, the World Health Organization encouraged China’s health officials to periodically disclose specific and real-time information on the country’s Covid situation.

At a meeting of a technical advisory committee slated for Tuesday, the agency has invited Chinese scientists to submit in-depth data on viral sequencing. It has also requested that China release additional data on genetic sequencing, hospitalisations, fatalities, and immunisations.

As reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, the European Union has given China free Covid vaccines to help manage the outbreak.

EU health officials will meet on Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response to the outbreak in China, the Swedish EU presidency announced on Monday.

The United States, France, Australia, and India, among others, will mandate Covid testing for Chinese travellers, while Belgium will test Chinese aircraft’s wastewater for new Covid variations.

China has denied criticism of its Covid data, and its state-run media has referred to the additional restrictions as “unfair.” Officials have also downplayed the risk posed by new variants, stating that any new mutations may be more contagious but less severe.

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