China to stop publishing daily Covid count as leaked document suggests 250 million fresh cases in just 20 days
Amid a massive surge in Covid cases, China's National Health Commission has now decided not to publish daily Covid data. Hospitals and morgues in China are fully packed as Covid cases are sweeping across the country with experts forecasting million to 2 million Covid deaths next year.
By India Today Web Desk: China is finding it extremely difficult to contain the massive surge in Covid-19 cases amid packed ICUs and crowded crematoriums. The country has now decided to stop publishing daily Covid-19 figures without specifying the reasons for the change.
China's National Health Commission said that it will no longer release such data from Sunday, reported Reuters. The government's action comes at a time after a leaked document suggested that about 250 million people in China may have been affected by Covid-19 in just 20 days after the 'zero-covid policy' was diluted in the first week of the month.
According to Radio Free Asia, leaked government documents are making rounds on social media which hints that around 250 million people may have been affected due to the infection in just 20 days in first week of the month after the stringent 'zero-Covid policy' measures were lifted after massive protests.
The leaked document suggests that 248 million people were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, or 17.65 per cent of China's population. A senior journalist told Radio Free Asia that the document was genuine, and had been leaked by someone who attended the meeting who was acting deliberately and in the public interests.
Hospitals and morgues in China are fully packed as Covid cases are sweeping across the country with experts forecasting million to 2 million Covid deaths next year. The current Covid surge is driven by the highly infectious BF.7 variant, which poses a high risk to the nation. Reports suggest that it could take couple of months before the country can emerge from the tsunami of infections sweeping across big cities.
Dec 26, 2022
