As per a Bloomberg report, China may have reported around 37 million Covid cases in a single day this week. The estimates are from the government's top health authority. China's outbreak is being called by far the world's largest one.
According to minutes from an internal meeting of China's National Health Commission held on Wednesday, as many as 248 million people, or nearly 18% of the population, likely contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December. People involved in the discussions have confirmed the development. If these figures are accurate, the infection rate would break the previous daily record of about 4 million, set in January 2022.
Reportedly, the 37 million single day tally daily has been estimated for December 20. Noteworthy here is that the official tally by authorities in China for the day was just 3,049 infections.
Dramatic discrepancy in Covid tally
Meanwhile, amid scary videos and pictures surfacing on social media, a report earlier claimed in its analysis that China is likely experiencing 1 million Covid infections and 5,000 virus deaths every day. Many experts have claimed that the South Asian country is grappling with what is expected to be the biggest outbreak the world has ever seen.
The firm warns of worse times for China
Airfinity Ltd., a London-based research firm that combines proprietary surveillance tools and forecast models with expert analysis for dozens of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, has said that things could turn worse for China and the current wave may see the daily case rate rise to 3.7 million in January. the group also estimated that there'll likely then be another surge of infections that will push the daily peak to 4.2 million in March.
Airfinity Ltd's report, which uses provincial data, displays that the impact of China suddenly doing away with the zero-Covid policy far exceeds the government's tally.
Official number downplay the situation
China clocked 2,966 new cases on Wednesday and there have been fewer than 10 Covid deaths since the beginning of December, as per the official numbers. However, the reports of hospitals being overcrowded and funeral houses being pushed to their limit portray a contradictory picture.
China has also changed its methodology on reporting virus figures. The country has closed down large network of mass-testing booths and done away with efforts to count every single infection in the daily tally. This has led to residents relying on rapid tests with no clear guidelines to report it to the government. The country's health regulator has also tweaked the definition for what is considered a Covid death.
Changes in methodology point to downplaying of numbers: firm
Louise Blair, Airfinity's head of vaccines and epidemiology, said in a statement that these changes mean "the official data is unlikely to be a true reflection of the outbreak being experienced across the country. "This change could downplay the extent of deaths seen in China," he said.
