China on Thursday called on the World Health Organization to adopt a "fair" stance on covid-19, after the organization criticized Beijing's assessment of the epidemic.

The country suspended without warning in early December most of its measures against covid-19, which had allowed its population to be largely protected from the virus since 2020

Since then, it has faced the worst outbreak of cases, with hospitals and crematoria seemingly overwhelmed.

However, the authorities report very few deaths related to Covid-19, following a controversial change in the methodology for counting cases.

"The current figures released by China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, intensive care admissions and, above all, in terms of deaths," Michael Ryan, head of health emergency management at the WHO, estimated on Wednesday.

"We hope that (...) the WHO will maintain a science-based, objective and impartial position and play an active role in the global response to the challenges of the epidemic," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.

Mao again assured that his country shared "relevant information and data" on the covid-19 epidemic and underlined the "close cooperation" between China and the WHO.

From now on, only people who have died directly from respiratory failure linked to covid-19 are counted in Chinese statistics.

China, which has 1.4 billion inhabitants, has recorded only 23 deaths from covid-19 since December, despite the unprecedented wave of contamination in the country three years ago.