China declares it “impossible” to track asymptomatic COVID cases

China’s National Health Commission (NHC) has stated it is now “impossible” to accurately track the number of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the country since testing has become voluntary.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it was scrapping daily reports as there was no way to track the full extent of asymptomatic infections in the country.
On Thursday, the NHC reported 2,000 new symptomatic COVID-19 infections for December 14th. Authorities had reported 2,291 symptomatic infections on December 13th.
WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan noted that COVID-19 infections in China were on the increase well before the government decided to roll back its strict zero-COVID policy.
Ryan stated, “The disease was spreading intensively because I believe the control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease.”