WHO ‘very concerned’ at Covid surge in China as cases soar – but Beijing claims no new deaths

A huge Covid surge in China is causing worldwide alarm – just as the country changes the way it records the virus, claiming zero deaths on Wednesday despite drug shortages and queues at crematoriums.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is “very concerned over the evolving situation ... with increasing reports of severe disease,” said director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom.

Cases have soared across the country after the ruling Communist regime abandoned its zero-Covid policy in the wake of huge protests, loosening restrictions and ending the requirement for daily PCR tests.

Anecdotally, many people have fallen ill in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

At a crematorium in Beijing's Tongzhou district, a Reuters witness saw a queue of about 40 hearses waiting to enter and there was a heavy police presence outside the crematorium.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press reporter saw multiple people being wheeled out of funeral homes in the city last week and two relatives said their loved ones had died after testing positive for Covid.

On Wednesday, China reported no new Covid deaths – and in fact subtracted one death from the overall toll, lowering it to 5,241, without an explanation.

The country’s National Health Commission this week announced that only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as Covid deaths.

Benjamin Mazer, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University, said that classification would miss “a lot of cases,” especially as those who are vaccinated are less likely to die of pneumonia.

Blood clots, heart problems and sepsis - an extreme body response to infection - have caused countless deaths among Covid patients around the world.

“It doesn't make sense to apply this sort of March 2020 mindset where it's only Covid and pneumonia that can kill you,” Mazer said. “There's all sorts of medical complications.”

The death toll might rise sharply in the near future, with the state-run Global Times newspaper citing a Chinese respiratory expert predicting a spike in severe cases in Beijing over the coming weeks.

Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who sits on a WHO committee tasked with advising on the status of the Covid-19 emergency, questioned whether the global community is post-pandemic “when such a significant part of the world is actually just entering its second wave”.

He added: “It’s clear that we are in a very different phase [of the pandemic], but in my mind, that pending wave in China is a wild card.”

Some US and European officials have offered to help mitigate a crisis they fear will hurt the global economy and disrupt supply chains.

From the epicentre in northern China, infections are spreading to manufacturing belts, including the Yangtze River Delta, near Shanghai, disrupting workforces.

Retail and financial service businesses have been hard hit by staff shortages, with factories not far behind, industry bodies say.

China is still largely cut off from the outside world with Covid restrictions on international travel but there are signs those rules too are easing.

Chelsea Xiang, 35, said she only needed to do two days of quarantine in southwestern city of Chengdu after returning from Hong Kong on Sunday, rather than the minimum five officially required.

“I feel I have my human rights again,” Xiang said.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media was reporting on a renewed vaccination drive among the vulnerable, such as the over-60s, and those in rural areas.

And in India, the government has asked states to keep a sharp lookout for any new variants of Covid in response to the Chinese wave.

“Covid is not over yet,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday after a government meeting at which masks were worn.