China reduces COVID-19 case number reporting as virus surges

China reduces COVID-19 case number reporting as virus surges China's National Health Commission is scaling down its daily COVID-19 report starting Wednesday after a sharp decline in PCR testing even though daily cases are hitting record highs. NPR.org

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A notice on the commission's website said it stopped publishing daily figures on numbers of COVID-19 cases where no symptoms are detected since it was "impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected persons," which have generally accounted for the vast majority of new infections. The only numbers they're reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.

This poses a key challenge for China as it relaxes its strict "zero-COVID" policy. With mass-PCR testing no longer obligatory and people with mild symptoms allowed to recuperate at home rather than in one of the field hospitals that became notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene, it has grown more difficult to gauge the true number of cases.

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