China Halts Daily COVID-19 Case Reporting Amid Surge in Confirmed Cases

Wigeonwi "Jung Disease Control and Prevention Center Discloses Related Information"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The National Health Commission of China (NHC) announced that it will stop releasing daily new COVID-19 infection statistics starting from the 25th.

According to Bloomberg News and others, the NHC stated on its website that "daily COVID-19 information will no longer be published," and that "in the future, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will disclose COVID-19 related information for reference and research purposes."

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

The Chinese government halted regular mass polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing after the 7th and stopped releasing statistics on asymptomatic infections from the 14th. Subsequently, reports emerged of a surge in COVID-19 cases within China, and concerns were raised about discrepancies between the number of infections announced by Chinese health authorities and the actual number of infections. There were even days when the authorities reported zero daily new deaths, which fueled controversy.

Bloomberg recently cited internal meeting minutes from the NHC, reporting that up to 248 million people, equivalent to 18% of China's population, may have been infected with COVID-19 by the 20th of this month.

On the same day, Zhejiang Province on the eastern coast announced that daily new infections had surpassed 1 million. Zhejiang's health authorities, during a press conference, analyzed infection case monitoring and community sample surveys and predicted that "the peak of infections will be reached around the 1st of next month," estimating that "daily confirmed cases could reach up to 2 million at the peak, and this situation may last for about a week."

As the situation worsened, local governments in places such as Guangzhou, China, took measures to suspend funeral services and allow only cremations due to a sharp increase in COVID-19 deaths.

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