The UN health agency has "continued to urge China" to share more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalisations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing in the wake of a Covid surge in the East Asian country. "The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the risk to life in the world's most populous country and reiterated the importance of stepping up vaccination coverage, including booster doses," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said recently in his first online briefing for the year. "With circulation in China so high and comprehensive data not forthcoming – as I said last week it is understandable that some countries are taking steps they believe will protect their citizens," he added. Several countries, including the US, have announced new Covid testing requirements for travellers from China to gain domestic entry, amid concerns over the spread of the latest variants. WHO Emergencies Director Dr Mike Ryan said: "We know there are difficulties in all countries very often in recording hospital releases, admissions and use of ICU (intensive care unit) facilities." "We believe that the current numbers being published from China underrepresents the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths." Also Read: Is China sharing enough COVID-19 information? WHO has held high-level meetings with Chinese authorities over the past week to discuss the rise in cases and hospitalisations. The UN agency's Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) also met with Chinese experts to discuss the situation. During that meeting, scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention presented data from what they described as imported and locally acquired coronavirus infections. The analysis showed that most of the viruses circulating in the country are of two Omicron lineages, BA.5.2 and BF.7, which accounted for 97.5 percent of all local infections, as well as a few other known Omicron sublineages. "These variants are known and have been circulating in other countries, and at present no new variant has been reported by the China CDC," the TAG-VE said in a statement on Wednesday. So far, 773 sequences from mainland China have been submitted to the virus database operated by the global science initiative, GISAID. Most, 564, were collected after December 1. Of this number, only 95 are labelled as locally acquired cases, while 187 are imported and 261 "do not have this information provided." The majority of the locally acquired cases, 95 percent, belong to the two Omicron lineages. "This is in line with genomes from travellers from China submitted to the GISAID EpiCoV database by other countries. No new variant or mutation of known significance is noted in the publicly available sequence data," the statement said. Tedros said the pandemic is now in its fourth year, and despite progress, it is still a threat to health, economies, and societies. "We are really concerned about the current Covid-19 epidemiological picture, with both intense transmission in several parts of the world and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly," he said. Covid was on the decline for most of 2021, Tedros added, citing factors such as increased vaccinations worldwide and the identification of new lifesaving antivirals. However, there are still major inequities in access to testing, treatment and vaccination. "Every week, approximately 10,000 people die of Covid-19, that we are aware of. The true toll is likely much higher," he said. Also, the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is on the rise in the US and Europe and has been identified in nearly 30 countries. XBB.1.5 was initially detected in October 2022.  It is the most transmissible subvariant yet, according to Dr Maria Van Kherkove, the WHO technical lead for Covid. "We do expect further waves of infection around the world, but that doesn't have to translate into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work," she said. Meanwhile, the TAG-VE experts are also working on a related risk assessment that should be published in the coming days.   Dr Van Kherkove emphasised the importance of continued Covid surveillance around the world to track known subvariants that are in circulation. Last month, more than 13 million cases of the disease were reported, though the WHO believes the toll is higher. "But more concerning, we've had a 15 percent increase in deaths in the last month and again, we know that that is an underestimate because there are delays in reporting, and with the holiday period and with mixing, those trends are expected to continue," Dr Van Kherkove said.  

Google broke Australian law by misleading users about personal location data collected through Android mobile devices, a judge found Friday. The Federal Court decision was a partial win for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the nation’s fair trade watchdog, which has been prosecuting Google for broader alleged breaches of consumer law since October 2019. Justice Thomas Thawley found that Google misled Android mobile device users about personal location data collected between January 2017 and December 2018. Also read: Google celebrates Pahela Baishakh with new doodle “This is an important victory for consumers, especially anyone concerned about their privacy online, as the court’s decision sends a strong message to Google and others that big businesses must not mislead their customers,” Commission Chair Rod Sims said in a statement. “We are extremely pleased with the outcome in this world-first case,” he added. Google is considering an appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court. “The court rejected many of the ACCC’s broad claims,” a Google statement said. “We disagree with the remaining findings and are currently reviewing our options, including a possible appeal,” Google added. The judge ruled that when users created a new Google account during the initial set-up process of their Android device, Google misrepresented that the “Location History” setting was the only Google account setting that affected whether Google collected, kept or used personally identifiable data about their location. But another Google account setting titled “Web & App Activity” also enabled Google to collect, store and use personally identifiable location data when it was turned on, and that setting was turned on by default. The judge also found that when users later accessed the “Location History” setting on their Android device during the same time period to turn that setting off, they were also misled because Google did not inform them that by leaving the “Web & App Activity” setting switched on, Google would continue to collect, store and use their personally identifiable location data. Similarly, between March 2017 and Nov. 29, 2018, when users later accessed the “Web & App Activity” setting on their Android device, they were misled because Google did not inform them that the setting was relevant to the collection of personal location data. Also read: Google gets into sleep surveillance with new Nest Hub screen Google said the digital platform provides “robust controls for location data and are always looking to do more.” The commission is seeking court orders and financial penalties against Google to be determined later. The Australia Institute Center for Responsible Technology, a Canberra-based think tank, said the case “highlights the complexity of Big Tech terms and conditions.” “The reality is most people have little to no idea on how much of their data is being used by Google and online platforms,” the Center’s Director Peter Lewis said in a statement. Lewis said reading most terms and conditions takes an average of 74 minutes and requires a university education, according to the institute’s research, and more comprehensive consumer data protection was needed.