In the absence of reliable health data, crowded hospitals have sparked fears among the public during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Chinese health authorities have said this winter’s flu season is less severe than the year before, but medical experts cast doubts over the transparency of its respiratory illness situation.
Residents from four different cities have expressed concerns about an uptick in respiratory infections within their families and communities when speaking to The Epoch Times.
Some suspected their flu-like symptoms may actually be caused by COVID-19, fearing that doctors were instructed to avoid such diagnoses, given that the authorities declared a victory in its fight against the pandemic almost two years ago.
In Shenyang, northern China, a woman named Xu said she’s noticed more people sick with respiratory illnesses have seen local hospitals packed again during the Lunar New Year holiday.
“I’m feeling unwell myself and haven’t recovered. The hospital said I contracted influenza A, but I believe it’s just COVID-19,” Xu told The Epoch Times on Feb. 7. She expressed concerns about how quickly the virus circulated among humans this time, saying her son, daughter-in-law, and their school-aged daughter have all fallen ill. “The authorities are concealing the scale of the outbreak.”
Flu Toll Questioned
China’s top health body has acknowledged the country is grappling with a spike in respiratory infectious illness, but said the rate of influenza has shown signs of slowing down.
During the regime’s most recent briefing, National Health Commission (NHC) officials reiterated its previous assessment, saying the scale and intensity of the spread of respiratory infectious diseases this year is lower than it was during the previous winter season.
“No new infectious disease had been detected,” Mi Feng, NHC’s spokesperson, told reporters on Jan. 17, ahead of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, attributing the current infections to a combination of known germs, most prominently influenza. No data was provided during the briefing.
It remains unclear how many people were infected with the influenza virus or COVID-19 this year. The latest figures showed 112 COVID-19 infections and seven deaths in December 2024, according to a monthly report from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Since December 2022, after a leaked recording of an internal NHC meeting indicated the COVID outbreaks were far worse than the official tallies indicated, the top health regulator stopped publishing daily COVID figures and transitioned COVID-related updates to its sub-department, CDC.
By Dorothy Li
