Corona wave rolls over China - President Xi with meaningful measure
Created: 12/26/2022, 10:07 am
By: Jennifer Lanzinger
In China, the number of corona infections is currently increasing rapidly.
© IMAGO / Kyodo News
A massive corona wave has China firmly in its grip.
The Health Commission no longer wants to report any daily figures.
Beijing – While the corona wave in Germany is currently staying at a constant level, the number of infections in China is continuing to explode.
The massive wave of infections is now having consequences: China has stopped publishing daily corona data after almost three years.
The number of new infections and deaths is no longer announced daily, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.
The Commission did not give a reason for this.
Massive corona wave in China: Health Commission no longer wants to report daily figures
The China Center for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to "release information about the outbreak for reference and research purposes," it said.
The Commission did not comment on the nature and frequency of these publications.
Internet users in China reacted cynically to the announcement.
"It was the best and largest office for fake statistics in the country," wrote a user on the online service Weibo about the authority that had previously published the official corona data.
Another wrote: "Finally waking up and realizing they can't fool people anymore."
China surprisingly announced the end of the controversial zero-Covid policy just this month after nationwide protests.
Since then, the corona numbers have risen massively.
Medicines are sometimes scarce and hospitals are overcrowded.
Crematoria and undertakers are also apparently having problems because of the increasing number of deaths.
According to the authorities, it is now impossible to estimate the number of corona cases due to the end of the obligation to test.
The authorities have also narrowed the medical definition of corona deaths, so the number of corona deaths is lower than it actually is, according to observers.
Officially, only six corona deaths have been reported since the corona measures were lifted.
Officials report more than half a million new infections in just one city
It was only on Saturday that the AFP news agency reported that, according to a high-ranking official, just one city in China recorded around half a million new corona infections every day.
There are "between 490,000 and 530,000 new infections" in Qingdao every day, the head of the local health authority was quoted as saying by an Internet portal operated by the ruling Communist Party.
The virus is spreading "rapidly" in the city in the east of the country, Bo Tao said.
The Internet portal published its article on Friday, which was distributed by several other media.
However, the article has apparently been revised on the Internet portal itself - on Saturday the numbers Bo mentioned could no longer be found.
Around ten million people live in Qingdao.
Bo's figures blatantly contradict official figures.
China's National Health Commission said on Saturday that 4,103 new cases of infection had been registered across the country the previous day.
Only 31 new cases were officially reported from Shandong province, where Qingdao is located.
