On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that China is "under-representing the true impact" of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the death toll. In the statement released by Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO′s Health Emergencies Programme, he stated that the agency believes that the definition of a COVID death is too narrow.

In his BBC interview, he stated that China is underrepresenting the number of hospital admissions, especially ICU admissions, and the number of deaths. He added that, amidst the ongoing surge in the number, China has stopped publishing the single-day tallies of the cases and deaths. He pointed out that in December 2022, the country changed its criteria for COVID deaths.

According to the new criteria, only people who died due to a respiratory illness will be included in the COVID death tally. Recently, Airfinity, a UK-based company, estimated that in China, more than 2 million COVID cases are reported in a single day, along with 14,700 deaths. 

(Source: https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=1036494 )