China's National Health Commission, which serves as a ministry, announced today it would no longer publish daily data on Covid cases and deaths, as it had done since early 2020. The same commission did not provide any explanation on the matter.
However, these statistics no longer reflect the unprecedented wave of infections that has hit China since the abandonment, last December 7, of the strict health measures of the "zero Covid" policy.
The AFP recalls that previously the almost mandatory PCR tests made it possible to reliably follow the progress of the epidemic.
But people infected with the virus now test at home and rarely report the results to authorities, which prevents reliable data.
"From today we will no longer publish daily information on the epidemic," the national health commission specified.
The China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will release information related to the outbreak for reference and research purposes," the commission added, without specifying the type or frequency of data that will be released.