China Limits COVID Deaths Only To Those Caused By Pneumonia, Respiratory Failure

China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 death toll, a Chinese health official confirmed, thus significantly limiting the number of deaths reported, as an outbreak of the virus infections surges following the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, Huizhong Wu reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The overall death toll remains blurry, as China has stopped requiring daily PCR tests and many people are testing at home.

Deaths that occur in patients with pre-existing illnesses are not counted as COVID-19 deaths, said Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at Peking University’s No. 1 Hospital. China has always been conservative in how it counts illnesses, whether from the flu or COVID-19.

In most countries, including the US, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-19-related death. In effect, Wang’s comments on Tuesday simply clarified publicly what the country has been doing throughout the pandemic.

On Wednesday, China reported no new COVID-19 deaths and in fact subtracted one death from the overall toll, lowering it to 5,241, according to a daily tally issued by the National Health Commission (NHC), which did not offer an explanation for the decrease.

The clarification of how China officially records COVID-19 deaths comes as cases have soared across the country amid the loosening of restrictions.

Yet the overall count remains blurry, as China has stopped requiring daily PCR tests and many people are testing at home. Anecdotally, many people have fallen ill in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Earlier this year, Shanghai was hit by an omicron-driven outbreak. Multiple people told the AP then that their elderly family members who tested positive for COVID-19 and died were not counted in the city’s official death toll. When patients had underlying diseases, the deaths were attributed to those.

An AP investigation then showed that numbers have been clouded by the way health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times shifting standard, as Shanghai changed how it defined positive cases.

That narrower criterion has meant China’s COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations, Aniruddha Ghosal also reported for AP.

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