Covid travel bans for Chinese visitors ‘discriminatory’ – state media

BEIJING, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Chinese state media said the COVID-19 testing requirements imposed around the world in response to a rising wave of infections were “discriminatory,” with restrictions still delaying reopenings. .

After closing its borders for three years, with a strict lockdown system and constant testing, China suddenly changed its way of dealing with the virus on December 7, unleashing a wave of infections across the country.

While some places have been surprised by the scale of the outbreak in China and have expressed skepticism about Beijing’s COVID statistics, the US, South Korea, India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan are conducting Covid tests for travelers from China.

Malaysia says it will screen all international arrivals for fever.

The state-run tabloid Global Times called the bans “baseless” and “discriminatory” in an article last Thursday saying its “real aim is to undermine China’s three-year-old efforts to control COVID-19 and attack the country’s system.”

China will stop requiring incoming travelers to enter quarantine starting January 8, but will require a negative PCR test result within 48 hours before departure.

Italy on Thursday urged the rest of the EU to follow its lead, but France, Germany and Portugal said no new restrictions were needed, while Austria stressed the economic benefits of Chinese tourists returning to Europe.

Before the outbreak, global spending by Chinese visitors was worth more than $250 billion a year.

The United States has raised concerns over data transparency in the world’s most populous country, as well as in China, over possible mutations of the virus.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering sampling sewage from international flights to monitor any new developments, the agency told Reuters.

China, a nation of 1.4 billion people, reported one new coronavirus death on Thursday, the same as the previous day – numbers that do not match the experience of other countries after reopening.

China’s official death toll since the outbreak began is 5,247, compared to more than 1 million in the United States. Hong Kong, the Chinese-controlled city of 7.4 million, has reported more than 11,000 deaths.

Airfinity, a UK-based health data firm, said on Thursday that nearly 9,000 people in China are probably dying from COVID every day. The total number of deaths in China since December 1 may reach 100,000, and the total number of people infected with the virus has reached 18.6 million, he said.

‘Excessive Mortality’

China’s chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou, said on Thursday that a team at China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will measure the difference between the number of deaths in the current wave of infections and the expected death rate if the outbreak never happened. By calculating “excess deaths,” China can do something predictable, Wu said.

China says it only counts deaths from Covid-19 patients due to pneumonia and respiratory failure as related to Covid-19.

The relatively low death count does not match the high demand reported by funeral parlors in many Chinese cities.

The lifting of the ban after widespread protests against them in November has overwhelmed hospitals and funeral homes across the country, fueled public concern with the sight of people dripping blood on roadsides and hearing lines outside crematoriums.

Health experts say China has been caught in an unprepared U-turn on policies long championed by President Xi Jinping.

In December, bids by hospitals for key equipment such as ventilators and patient monitors were two to three times higher than in previous months, according to a Reuters analysis.

Experts say that the elderly in rural areas may be particularly vulnerable due to the lack of adequate medical resources. Next month’s Lunar New Year festival, when hundreds of millions travel to their hometowns, adds to the danger.

Economic woes

The world’s second-largest economy is expected to shrink further in the near future as factory workers and consumers get sick. Some economists predict a strong recovery from the low base next year, but concerns that some of the damage from the three-year ban could be long-term.

Consumers may need time to regain confidence and appetite after losing income during the lockdown, while the private sector may have used the expansionary funds to cover losses due to the lockdown.

Heavily indebted China is also licking its wounds as demand in its main export markets shrinks.

China’s factory activity is likely to cool in December as rising infections begin to affect production lines, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Chinese airlines, however, appear to be early winners in the reopening.

Written by Marius Zaharia. Editing by Jerry Doyle

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