BEIJING/SHANGHAI – China defended its handling of its raging COVID-19 outbreak after US President Joe Biden voiced concern and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths.
The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said recently in some of the UN health agency’s most critical remarks to date, that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts.
China scrapped its stringent COVID controls last month after protests against them, abandoning a policy that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing in Beijing that China had transparently and quickly shared COVID data with the WHO.
Mao said that China’s “epidemic situation is controllable” and that it hoped the WHO would “uphold a scientific, objective, and impartial position”.
“Facts have proved that China has always, in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness and transparency, maintained close communication and shared relevant information and data with the WHO in a timely manner,” Mao said according to Reuters.
China reported one new COVID death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.
Ryan said the numbers China was publishing under-represented hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths.
Hours later, US President Joe Biden also raised concern about China’s handling of a COVID outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes.
“They’re very sensitive … when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming,” Biden told reporters.
