China's COVID-19 data is not giving an accurate picture of the situation there and underrepresents the number of hospitalisations and deaths from the disease, a senior official at the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
The U.N. agency was preparing to meet Chinese scientists again on Thursday as part of a wider briefing among member states on the global COVID-19 situation as concerns grow about the rapid spread of the virus in the world's No. 2 economy.data to a WHO technical advisory group showing no new coronavirus variant had been found in the country of 1.4 billion people.
"We believe the current numbers being published from China underrepresent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, particularly in terms of death," said Mike Ryan, WHO's emergencies director. He said vaccination rates needed to increase and people should wear masks to protect themselves from infection."It really does depend on the measures that are in place," said the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead Maria van Kerkhove.
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