China hands daily Covid data duty to local CDC as nations seek transparency

China's National Health Commission (NHC) has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 case data, handing over the charge to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as nations including India ask the country to share actual Covid data on an urgent basis.

According to state-run Global Times, handing over the epidemic data calculation to a technical organisation "is a reasonable move to provide professional epidemic figures".

"The NHC will no longer release daily epidemic data from Sunday. China's CDC will release relevant COVID-19 information for study and reference," the NHC said in a statement.

According to local experts, the move will help shift more resources of related authorities to other key steps like clinical treatment.

It is believed, the CDC will largely rely on COVID-19 data reported by clinical diagnosis in medical institutions and monitor overall epidemic trends.

China's NHC began to release the daily new tally from January 21, 2020 when epidemic experts identified that the virus could spread from between humans.

However, it will still take days for the CDC to activate the epidemic monitor reporting system and allow the organisation to collect and report infection data effectively.

The organisation will roll out the plan in the coming days.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that he is "very concerned over the evolving situation in China" and appealed for specific data on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.

The reports from China suggest that the Omicron BF.7 variant is behind the surge in the country.

Indian officials and experts feel that China's censorship on actual Covid infection data sharing is a major concern for the world as countries prepare to navigate another potential wave.

--IANS

na/uk/