Why Did COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Suddenly Surge in China?

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] The Hubei Provincial Health Commission (Weiguanwei) in China drew attention on the 13th after suddenly announcing a surge in COVID-19 confirmed cases and death statistics. The major increase in confirmed cases and deaths is attributed to the addition of a large number of patients with pneumonia symptoms among suspected cases, whose infection is more than 90% certain, to the statistics.

At the beginning of the statistics announcement that day, the Hubei Weiguanwei explained that the surge in confirmed cases and deaths was due to the application of a new statistical method. The Weiguanwei stated, "As awareness of COVID-19 deepened and clinical experience accumulated, a new COVID-19 clinical diagnosis method was added. We added the 'clinical diagnosis' category to the confirmed cases classification. According to this method, the diagnostic results for existing suspected cases have been corrected, and new patients are being diagnosed using the new method."

Through a separate note, it was added that "clinical diagnosis includes suspected patients who have pneumonia symptoms." This means that people who had not previously been confirmed but had suspicious symptoms were included en masse as clinically diagnosed confirmed cases. Also, those who died during the suspected stage with symptoms such as pneumonia were classified en masse as COVID-19 confirmed deaths.

The change in China's statistical method is interpreted as an effort to more accurately reflect the COVID-19 spread situation, but the sudden change in method inevitably drew criticism for undermining trust in the government's statistical announcements. Meanwhile, within China, distrust was spreading as the health authorities' COVID-19 statistics announcements were delayed for the second consecutive day, raising concerns that the announced confirmed cases and death statistics were significantly underreported.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.