China’s release of COVID-19 information, including information on COVID-19-related deaths, has always been transparent, a health official said Thursday.
“China has always been publishing information on COVID-19 deaths and severe cases in the spirit of openness and transparency,” Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission, said at a press briefing held by the State Council Information Office.
She noted that the global criteria for judging COVID-19 deaths are divided into two categories.
Some countries count only cases of people with positive nucleic acid test results after getting infected with the novel coronavirus and died of respiratory failure induced by the virus.
Some other countries, Jiao said, include all deaths within 28 days of positive COVID-19 tests. This means their toll could even include those who committed suicide or died in car accidents after contracting the virus.
“Since 2020, the COVID-19 death criterion we are adopting in China has been the first kind,” Jiao explained, saying that China counts a death from respiratory failure caused by the novel coronavirus after a positive COVID-19 test as a COVID-19 death.
China has also published cases in which the patients were infected by COVID-19 virus but the direct causes of the death were underlying diseases, she said.
In such cases, the causes of the death were attributed to underlying diseases, she said.
“China has always been committed to the scientific criteria for judging COVID-19 deaths, from beginning to end, which are in line with the international criteria,” added Jiao.
