China stops issuing daily Covid data ahead of outbreak’s peak
Live MintChina’s central health authority has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 data, ending a three-year effort that has drawn mounting criticism for massively underreporting the surge in infections now sweeping the country. In a one-line announcement Sunday, China’s National Health Commission said it would no longer issue its daily report on Covid infections and deaths. Daily infections in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, a major hub for Chinese technology startups and base for e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., breached one million, based on estimates from community sampling, said Yu Xinle, the deputy director of the province’s health agency. The region of almost 65 million people expects its outbreak to plateau at around two million cases a day for a week around New Year’s Day, Mr. Yu said Sunday.