12 Jan 2023 • China has abandoned mass testing and adopted new criteria for counting deaths that will prevent the majority of fatalities from being reported, thus ceasing to track COVID cases and deaths. According to modelling done by the UK-based health analytics company Airfinity, covid-19 has killed 110 000 people in China since the beginning of December, or 11,000 a day. In China, what’s been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in intensive care units, but anecdotally they are filling up,” said WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan at a 22 December press conference. “I wouldn’t like to say that China is actively not telling us what’s going on. I think they’re behind the curve.” The most populous nation in the world, which is still feeling the effects of the Covid rise, will celebrate the Lunar New Year this month, which will cause millions of people to travel around the nation, from megacities to the countryside. As a result, many nations are tightening Covid restrictions on Chinese travellers and airlines.

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