The government of China has deleted Covid-19 data, the Financial Times has reported.
According to Financial Times, one of China’s most populous provinces deleted the mortality data.
The data allegedly indicated the heavy death toll from Beijing’s relaxation of Covid-19 controls at the end of 2022.
"The statistics reported by Zhejiang province showed the number of cremations in the wealthy coastal region during the first quarter of the year jumped by 73 per cent from a year earlier to 171,000," the publication says.
"The figure was well above the 99,000 and 91,000 deaths reported in the same period in 2022 and 2021 respectively. By Monday, with the statistics attracting attention on Chinese social media, Zhejiang had pulled the information offline."
According to the publication, In early January the World Health Organization accused China of underrepresenting the severity of its coronavirus outbreak and the real number of deaths.
"For this Covid-19 wave, we have a team studying excess deaths, and we will provide this information to the public," Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a December press briefing.
