Biden Worries Over China’s COVID Response After WHO Questions Data

By Staff, Agencies

US President Joe Biden raised concern about China's handling of its COVID-19 outbreak hours after the World Health Organization said it was under-reporting virus deaths, comments likely to provoke a response from Beijing on Thursday.

The United States is one of more than a dozen nations that have imposed restrictions on travelers from China since it scrapped stringent COVID controls last month that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years.

Global health officials are now trying to get to grips with an outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes, at odds with China's low official virus death toll.

Mike Ryan, emergencies director at the World Health Organization [WHO], told a media briefing on Wednesday that current numbers being published from China under-represent hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths.

Speaking hours later, Biden said that he was worried about how China was handling the outbreak.

"They're very sensitive … when we suggest they haven't been that forthcoming," he told reporters while on a visit to Kentucky.

The comments from the WHO on the lack of data were some of the most critical to date and could earn a critical response from Beijing when it holds a regular foreign ministry press briefing later on Thursday.

There was no immediate coverage of the remarks by Biden or the WHO in Chinese state media on Thursday. The government has recently played down the severity of the situation.

The state-run Global Times said in an article on Wednesday that COVID infections had peaked in several cities including the capital, Beijing, citing interviews with doctors.

China reported one new COVID-19 death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.