China Stops Giving Daily Covid Data as Accuracy Questioned

China's National Health Commission will no longer publish daily Covid-19 case numbers after the accuracy of its data was questioned.

According to the commission, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release Covid-related info for studies and reference.

Some Chinese cities have reported infections that are much higher than the NHC's numbers suggest.

According to minutes from an internal meeting of China's National Health Commission held on Wednesday, nearly 18% of the population probably contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December. Hospitals in major cities have been overwhelmed.

In an illustration of the unreliability of data, officials in the southern province of Guangdong said Friday that up to 300,000 people were being affected by the H1N1 swine flu. According to a local newspaper report, the city of Qingdao in the eastern province of Shandong is seeing over 500,000 cases a day. The NHC tally for December 23 was over 4,000 cases.

China expanded the use of a vaccine. According to the National Health Commission, people who are three and above can get a Covid vaccine. It was approved only for people over the age of 18. After six months, a booster shot can be given to people who are fully vaccine free.

Charlie Zhu, Emma Dong, and Jessica Sui assisted.