China insists Covid data is transparent even as crematoriums are overwhelmed

Beijing, Jan 02: Amid criticism on social media over the government's reporting of the outbreak and widespread pressure on funeral homes, China's health ministry insisted that China's official data on COVID-19 deaths have always been transparent, Xinhua reported.

"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 on Thursday. "Since 2020, the COVID-19 death criterion we are adopting in China has been the first kind," she 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.

The clarification follows media reports that many more died after being infected amid rising demand at funeral homes and crematoriums, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

Overwhelmed funeral homes

According to the RFA report, bodies were seen piling up in people's homes awaiting cremation bookings across China in recent days. Reuters also reported that funeral homes in Beijing were overwhelmed with a weeks-long backlog of bodies awaiting cremation.

Local media in Guangzhou reported a huge crowd waiting to secure cremation bookings outside the city's Yinheyuan funeral parlor, with many complaining that their loved one's remains were still in their homes, and that they couldn't make a booking on the phone.

However, debunking rumors circulating on social media which claimed funeral homes in the city were cremating two or more bodies in one incinerator, the Shanghai municipal government announced that the city's funeral system insisted on upholding the dignity of the deceased and the rights and interests of families. "The city's funeral system insists on safeguarding the dignity of the deceased and the rights and interests of the families. The situation circulating on the internet has never happened and will not happen in any of the city's funeral parlors," the bureau told The Global Times.

The operation of cremation equipment in Shanghai's funeral homes is in line with national standards, which requires cremating one corpse in one incinerator, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau told local media Jiefang Daily.

This comes after the meeting with World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus where he urged China to regularly share specific and real-time data on the COVID-19 situation in the country, amid a surge in coronavirus cases after it relaxed its strict 'zero-COVID' policy. The global health agency has asked Chinese health officials to share data on genetic sequencing, hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations.

China stopped publishing daily COVID-19 update

The world's most populous country recently downgraded the management of COVID-19 to Class-B infectious diseases. Notably, China's National Health Commission (NHC) reportedly stopped publishing the daily COVID-19 update, which typically made up the bulk of the infection tally, without stating any reason, raising doubts about its government's transparency.

Health officials said only deaths directly related to respiratory failure will be counted under COVID-19 death statistics.

China rolled back many of its tough pandemic restrictions earlier this month, allowing the virus to spread in a country that had seen relatively few infections since an initial devastating outbreak in the city of Wuhan in early 2020.