BEIJING: U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern about China's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak just hours after the World Health Organization said the country was underreporting virus deaths, comments that are likely to elicit a response from Beijing on Thursday.

The U.S. is one of more than a dozen countries that have imposed restrictions on travelers from China. Global health officials are now trying to get to grips with an outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes, at odds with China's low death toll.

Mike Ryan, emergencies director at the World Health Organization (WHO), told a media briefing on Wednesday that the current numbers being published from China underrepresent hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients, and deaths.

Speaking hours later, Biden said that he was worried about how China was handling the outbreak.

"They're very sensitive... "We suggest they haven't been that forthcoming," he told reporters while on a visit to Kentucky.

The WHO's comment on the lack of data is one of the most important to date and may deserve a harsh response from Beijing when it holds its regular Foreign Ministry press conference late on Thursday.

There was no news of Biden's or the WHO's comments in Chinese state media on Thursday. The government has recently downplayed the severity of the situation.

The state-run Global Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that COVID-19 infections had peaked in several cities, including Beijing, citing doctor interviews.

China reported one new COVID-19 death on the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259,

With one of the lowest COVID death tolls in the world, China has been routinely accused of under-reporting infections and deaths for political reasons.

Chinese health officials have said only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths. The methods for counting COVID deaths have varied across countries since the pandemic first erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

However, disease experts outside of China have stated that its approach would overlook several other widely recognized types of potentially fatal COVID complications, such as blood clots, heart attacks, sepsis, and kidney failure. Without immediate action, international health experts predict that at least 1 million COVID-related deaths will occur in China this year. According to the British-based health data firm Airfinity, approximately 9,000 people in China die each day from COVID.

Surging COVID infections are hurting demand in China's $17 trillion economy, with a private-sector survey released on Thursday showing service activity shrank in December.

However, investors remain optimistic that China's removal of COVID controls will eventually help revive growth, which has fallen to its lowest level in nearly a half-century. On Thursday, Asian equity markets were seen rising as a result of these expectations.

"China's reopening has a big impact... globally," said Joanne Goh, an investment strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, because it not only boosts tourism and consumption but also helps to alleviate some of the supply-chain constraints seen in 2022.

"There will be hiccups along the way," Goh said during a press conference. "We will give it six months to adjust to the process." However, we do not believe it is reversible.

The Chinese yuan held near a four-month high against the US dollar.

While countries try to get more information on the extent and severity of China's outbreak, several have imposed requirements on travelers from China to be tested for COVID.

EU officials recommended on Wednesday that passengers flying from China to the 27-member bloc should have a negative COVID-19 test before they begin their journeys.

The officials also called for testing and sequencing of wastewater on planes arriving from China and at airports that handle international flights, among other measures.

China has criticized other countries' border controls on its citizens as unreasonable and unscientific.

While China will no longer require inbound travelers to be quarantined beginning January 8, they will still be required to take a COVID test prior to arrival.

The government announced on Thursday that its border with Hong Kong's special administrative region would reopen on Sunday for the first time in three years.

Residents of Hong Kong have flocked to clinics to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of the expected reopening, which some fear will bring a surge of infections to the financial center.