Doubts over China's reporting on Covid deaths

During a busy shift at the height of Beijing's Covid wave, a physician at a private hospital saw a printed notice in the emergency department: doctors should "try not to" write Covid-induced respiratory failure on death certificates.

Instead, if the deceased had an underlying disease, that should be named as the main cause of death, according to the notice, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

If doctors believe that the death was caused solely by Covid-19 pneumonia, they must report to their superiors, who will arrange for two levels of "expert consultations" before a Covid death is confirmed, it said.