China's National Health Commission (NHC), which used to issue the country's Covid-19 case figures on a daily basis, has stopped publishing the update starting Sunday.

"China's National Health Commission (NHC) will stop publishing daily COVID-19 case data from Sunday. Instead, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release COVID-related info for study and reference," NHC said in a statement.

On the website, the National Health Commission on Saturday gave the Covid-19 case figures of Friday.

China mainland reported 4,128 new cases of confirmed infections and no new death in the country.

On December 23, 1,760 patients were released from the hospital after being cured and 28,865 people who had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation.

The move comes in the backdrop of a Radio Free Asia report that nearly 250 million people in China may have been affected by Covid-19 in just 20 days after the 'zero-covid policy' was diluted in the first week of the month.

According to the leaked government documents that are circulating on social media, 248 million people were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, or 17.65 per cent of China's population.

The data on covid cases released by government officials on December 20 is different from the reality as nearly 37 million were estimated, according to Radio Free Asia.

A senior Chinese journalist told Radio Free Asia on Thursday that the document was genuine, and had been leaked by someone who attended the meeting who was acting deliberately and in the public interest.

Meanwhile, British-based health data firm Airfinity, said that the infections in China are likely to be more than one million a day with deaths at more than 5,000 a day.