Hospitalizations due to covid grow in hospitals in China / AFP
As COVID-19 spreads through China, other countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) are asking their government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak. Some even claim that many of the figures it offers are nonsense.
Without basic data such as the number of deaths, infections and serious cases, governments of other countries have established virus testing requirements for travelers from China. Beijing argues that the measures are not based on science and threatens to impose retaliatory measures.
The most worrying thing is whether new variants of the virus that is spreading massively in China will emerge and if it will reach other countries. The delta and omicron variants developed in places where there have also been significant outbreaks, which may be a breeding ground for new variants.
Here’s a look at China’s COVID-19 data:
WHAT CHINA SHARES AND WHAT IT DOESN’T
Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases, and deaths, but these numbers include only officially confirmed cases and rely on a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.
China is most likely conducting its own sampling studies, but not sharing them, says Ray Yip, who founded the China office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. English).
For example, Thursday’s nationwide tally was 9,548 new cases and five deaths, but some municipal governments are posting much higher estimates, just for their jurisdictions. Authorities in Zhejiang, a province on the east coast, said on Tuesday that about 1 million new cases are being reported there daily.
If a variant emerges in an outbreak, it is found through genetic sequencing of the virus.
Since the start of the pandemic, China has shared 4,144 sequences through GISAID, a global platform for coronavirus data. That represents just 0.04% of its number of reported cases: a rate more than 100 times lower than that of the United States and almost four times lower than that of neighboring Mongolia.
WHAT IS KNOWN AND WHAT CAN BE DECIDED
So far, no new variants have emerged in the sequences shared by China. The accounts fueling the contagion in China “look very similar” to those seen in other parts of the world since July, according to GISAID. Gagandeep Kang, a doctor who studies viruses at Vellore Christian Medical College in India, agreed, saying there was nothing particularly concerning in the data so far.
That hasn’t stopped at least 10 countries — Australia, Canada, France, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States — from announcing virus testing requirements for passengers arriving from China. The European Union broadly urged all its member states to do the same this week.
Health authorities have defended the tests as a surveillance measure that helps fill China’s information gap. This means countries can get a read on any changes in the virus through testing, even if they don’t have full data from China.
Canada and Belgium announced that they will look for viral particles in the wastewater of planes arriving from China.
IS CHINA SHARING ENOUGH INFORMATION?
The Chinese authorities have repeatedly stated that they are sharing information, through the sequences delivered to GISAID and the meetings they hold with the WHO, but several times now, WHO officials have asked for more data, not only on genetic sequencing, but also on also on hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care units and deaths. This week, the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was concerned about the risks in China. “Data remain essential for the WHO to conduct regular, rapid and robust risk assessments for the global situation,” said the head of the United Nations health agency.
