Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
Since the start of the pandemic, the Chinese National Health Commission, which is the equivalent of our ministry in China, has been reporting daily on the number of cases of contamination and death linked to Covid-19. In an announcement made on Sunday, she indicates that this will no longer be the case. “Good news”, for Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
Without further explanation, the Chinese National Health Commission announced that it was ceasing its daily announcements about the number of contaminations and deaths, linked to Covid-19. A practice that had started at the start of the pandemic, in 2020. “As of today, we will no longer publish the daily information on the epidemic” she announced. “The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will release information related to the outbreak for reference and research purposes.”.
An initiative hailed by Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo. “It’s a good thing, these figures no longer make sense at the moment. We should also be inspired by this initiative, in France”.
Insufficiently reliable figures
One of the reasons that could explain this change would be linked to the changes implemented by the country since December 7th. Indeed, Beijing has decided to no longer subject its population to the strict “Zero Covid” health rules that it has known since the onset of the disease. Almost daily PCR tests were mandatory.
Today, most infected Chinese now use self-tests, carried out at home and the results of which are practically never transmitted to the authorities. As a result, the statistics issued by this commission were no longer reliable enough. China has only announced six deaths since the lifting of restrictions.
Hospitals under stress
It is therefore difficult to know where the country is precisely in the face of Covid-19. According to our colleagues from AFP, who interviewed people working in crematoriums, mortuary establishments have experienced an unusual influx of bodies. Hospitals would also be under strain, due to an increase in the number of patients. So many complicated elements to verify by official sources, as the communication is locked by the authorities of the country.
“No comparison possible with France”
“Announcing cases of contamination on a daily basis is something anxiety-provoking, just like deaths elsewhere” explains Dr. Kierzek. “You always have to relate the facts to their context: it makes no sense to give a number of deaths, it plays on the emotional, without attaching it to reality”.
For the doctor, the comparison between what is happening in China and France has no place. “We are in two different situations: on the one hand China has many more inhabitants than France and by their “Zero Covid” strategy they have not been immunized like us here, following all the waves that have succeeded but rather lived as in a bubble“. A bubble that is about to burst, it seems.