The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday met with high-level officials from China’s National Health Commission and the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration to seek information on the COVID-19 situation in the country, reported The Reuters.
China is notably witnessing a new spike in coronavirus cases after the government eased the curbs.
The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the organization’s covid experts have stressed the importance of transparency and regular sharing of data to formulate accurate risk assessments and to inform effective response.
The WHO has asked the Chinese health authorities for regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation including more genetic sequencing data, hospitalisation data, intensive care unit admissions and deaths and vaccination status data, especially in vulnerable people and those over 60 years old.
Tedros said that the WHO will continue to offer its support for clinical care and protect China’s healthcare system of China.
“We remain concerned about the evolving situation and continue encouraging #China to track the #COVID19 virus and vaccinate the highest risk people. We continue to offer our support for clinical care and protecting its health system,” Tedros wrote on Twitter.
The UN health body has called on Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a the Technical Advisory Group meeting on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution scheduled to be held on January.
The Chinese National Health Commission said that its health officials had exchanged views with the WHO during Friday’s meeting and that more such technical exchanges would be held in coming days.
It is feared that Chinese government’s decision to loosen its travel restrictions on inbound and outbound travel from 8 January could spread COVID-19. The United States, the United Kingdom, India and several other countries have already imposed travel restrictions on travellers travelling from China, citing a lack of data as the reason.
