by Irene Soave
Brussels says EU citizens are protected by vaccines and testing is not warranted
The cutbacks at the airport for passengers arriving from China are “unjustified”: The China boom in new Covid cases “should not have any impact on Europe”. In addition, the variants of Covid-19 sequenced in China are “already circulating in the Union” and the citizens of the 27 member countries have a high rate of vaccination and immunization.
This is what the European Agency for the Surveillance of Infectious Diseases (ECDC) said in a statement yesterday after Italy introduced the obligation to swab passengers from Beijing and Shanghai (46% positive only in Malpensa), calling for joint initiatives in this regard. Yesterday, in an emergency, the EU Commission convened the Health Security Committee to evaluate “a coordinated decision”: Here the 27 agreed to maintain “active surveillance” and continue contacts to evaluate joint initiatives. But nothing has been arranged yet.
However, even French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday morning urged his government to “take appropriate measures” to counter the spread of Covid-19 among passengers arriving from China; In the afternoon, the government alerted airlines and airports to prepare a control system in view of possible EU decisions. In addition to Italy, screening on arrival is already active in various countries. India, Japan, Taiwan and, since yesterday, the USA are also demanding a smear. The UK government has announced that for the time being “there are no plans to reintroduce any additional testing or requirements”; WHO spokesmen urge “not to discriminate against any population group or group, but to treat everyone with respect”.
China recently lifted anti-Covid measures even after fierce (and informal) protests from citizens. The movement of people in the cities resumed in December, and with it that of the virus: unofficial estimates put a million deaths in the coming months. The government is much more vague: also thanks to a change in the way the deaths from Covid are counted and until the end of the persecution; just five thousand cases and zero deaths were recorded across China yesterday. Numbers that do not seem reliable compared to reports from the international press, which report collapsing intensive care units, exhausted crematoria and projections with 60% of the Chinese being infected within a few weeks. Portal and Bloomberg showed photos of long lines of black cars and coffins, and in response, authorities had police cordoned off the same streets the next day.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday commented on the introduction of tampons in some countries without naming them: measures “rigged and ill-informed”. But the measures, though passed piecemeal by a few countries, also seem to reflect a global concern about the transparency and timeliness of Beijing’s communications.
December 29, 2022 (change December 29, 2022 | 22:15)
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