- Thomas Mackintosh
- BBC News, London
image copyright GettyImages
China is seeing a surge in Covid cases since many restrictions were eased earlier this month
China has set the way it calculates the number of deaths from COVID-19, amid doubts about the true impact of the disease in the country.
She says the figure only includes those who die from respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia.
There were only five official Covid deaths on Tuesday, two on Monday, and none in the past two weeks.
This method of calculation is at odds with WHO guidelines, resulting in a figure far below the number of deaths in many other countries.
The World Health Organization says countries use different processes to report COVID-19 deaths, making comparisons between countries difficult.
Many countries record COVID-19 deaths as excess deaths, which is a way of calculating more people who died than would be expected based on pre-pandemic death figures.
These calculations also take into account deaths that were not directly due to COVID but were caused by its indirect effects, including people unable to get to hospitals for the care they need.
By contrast, China has strict criteria for counting COVID-19 deaths that include evidence of lung damage caused by the virus. This must be confirmed by diagnostic x-rays.
But the country is currently seeing a rise in cases since it lifted its toughest restrictions earlier this month.
Official figures show a relatively low number of new daily infections and deaths. This has led to fears that the numbers may be an underestimate due to the recent drop in mandatory Covid tests.
In an effort to address the concerns, the State Council held a press conference on Tuesday.
Infectious disease expert Professor Wang Guiqiang explained that deaths from pneumonia and respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus were counted as COVID-related deaths.
The state-owned China News Service reported that deaths from underlying COVID-19 patients are not included in the official count.
Strict lockdowns are said to be responsible for keeping China’s official death toll so low since the start of the pandemic, the official figure at just over 5,200.
That equates to just three deaths per million infections in China, compared to 3,000 per million in the United States and 2,400 per million in the United Kingdom.
China has faced challenges in using vaccines, especially in getting them to the people most in need.
China says more than 90% of its population has been fully vaccinated. However, less than half of people aged 80 and over received three doses of the vaccine. It is known that the elderly are more likely to suffer from severe Covid symptoms.
China developed and produced its own vaccines, but they proved less effective in protecting people from the dangerous Covid disease.
Professor Wang’s comments come as hospitals in the capital, Beijing, and in other cities, struggle to deal with the latest wave of Covid.
The recent wave of COVID-19 infections has also hit postal and catering services severely.
Meanwhile, Shanghai, China’s largest city, has ordered most of its schools to teach online as the number of cases soared.