UNRELIABLE AND UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION? WHY IS THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN CHINA A CONCERN?

China has admitted it has become "unable" to keep up with the scale of the outbreak after a mandatory increase in testing last monthPhotoCredit@IndiaToday

 With some reports estimating 9,000 cases a day. The massive explosion in cases came after China decided to lift its zero-Covid policy in December.PhotoCredit@pexels 

(WHO) has asked China for more data on genetic links, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations, as many countries ban entry from China amid a rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19.Â

That responsibility has shifted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has only released the data once a month since China eased its disease control measure

Last week more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Australia and Canada, said they would limit screening on arrival, among other measures to test the infection.Pho

Lead to people arriving from China being screened for Covid. However, there is no evidence that a new virus has emerged in the current wave.

CDC Director Xu Wenbo said last month that China was creating a nationwide database of Covid samples from hospital surveillance that will help track exchange changes.

Chinese health experts recently said Omicron BA.5.2 and BF.7 substrains are common in Beijing, addressing public fears that the delta virus could still occur.

In many Western countries, these changes have been overtaken by the spread of XBB and BQ, which are not yet available in China.