China has stopped publishing daily COVID data amid reports of a huge spike in cases

Liang from Beijing, center, looks on as his 82-year-old grandmother is brought in a casket to the Gaobeidian Funeral Home in northern China's Hebei province on Dec. 22, 2022. Liang's grandmother had been unvaccinated when she came down with coronavirus symptoms, and had spent her final days hooked to a respirator in a Beijing ICU. (AP)

China has stopped publishing daily COVID-19 data, adding to concerns that the country's leadership may be concealing negative information about the pandemic following the easing of restrictions.

China's National Health Commission said in a statement that it would no longer publish the data daily beginning Sunday and that "from now on, the Chinese CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) will release relevant COVID information for reference and research." The NHC did not say why the change had been made and did not indicate how often the CDC would release data.