The World Health Organization is "concerned" about the rise in COVID-19 infections in China, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, again urging Beijing to hand over swift and regular data on hospitalizations and deaths there.
We continue to ask China for faster, more regular and reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more complete real-time viral sequencing. The WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalization, severe illness and death. This is particularly important for older adults, people with special medical conditions and at severe risk. With the virus circulating so high in China, and without data information flowing, it is understandable that some countries are taking steps they believe will help protect their populations. Data is useful for the World Health Organization and the entire world, and we encourage all countries to share it.
The recent COVID-19 outbreak in China is predominantly led by the BA.5.2 and BF.7 subvariants of Ómicron, which together account for 97.5% of all local infections, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
The data was based on an analysis of more than 2,000 genomes by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the WHO said.