On Tuesday afternoon, the EU discussed how to deal with the corona wave in China at the Health Security Committee (HSC), on which the 27 member countries are represented. At the expert meeting, testing of wastewater at airports for the corona virus and information for passengers and airport staff will be discussed, the EU Commission said on Twitter. Belgium has stated that it wants to analyze wastewater from aircraft that landed from China in a pilot project.
Last Thursday, member states had not found a common thread at an HSC meeting. The Swedish Presidency of the EU Council has convened a meeting of the IPCR crisis response mechanism on the corona pandemic in China for this Wednesday.
Ahead of the deliberations, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides offered China EU support, according to a spokesperson for the Commission. This includes vaccine donations, the spokesperson in Brussels said. “Our offer stands,” another commission spokeswoman said.
China is currently experiencing the biggest increase in corona infections in the world, and hospitals are overcrowded in many places. In a radical about-face, Beijing abandoned its strict Covid-zero policy in early December. Since then, crown restrictions have been significantly relaxed.
In the metropolis of Shanghai, more than two-thirds of residents may have been infected with the corona virus in recent days. The outbreak may have affected “70% of the population,” said the deputy head of Ruijin Hospital, Chen Erzhen, according to a blog by the Chinese People’s Daily. Ruijin Hospital is one of the most important hospitals in Shanghai, considered the economic capital of China with 25 million inhabitants.
Because of the corona pandemic, China has not issued tourist visas for almost three years. When entering from abroad, a quarantine obligation applies. That quarantine requirement will be lifted on January 8, sending Chinese interest in traveling abroad skyrocketing. However, visitors from China must still present a negative corona test not exceeding 48 hours before entering the country.
About a dozen countries, including the US, Japan, Israel and also European countries such as France, Spain and Britain, have now ordered travelers from China to be tested for corona. Morocco went even further and banned all entry from China, regardless of travellers’ nationality.
Spain on Tuesday put into effect the announced corona restrictions for travelers from China. Air travelers from the Middle Kingdom are again subject to the 3G rule: vaccinated, recovered or tested. Flight crew and children under twelve are exempt. Anyone who has a body temperature greater than 37.5 degrees when entering the country must undergo a health check and possibly a corona test. If the result is positive, the decision on a possible isolation obligation rests with the respective region.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed understanding for corona test obligations for travelers to China. “In the absence of full information from China, it is understandable that countries are taking measures that they believe will protect their people,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week.
In a meeting with Chinese officials on Friday, WHO officials called for more transparency. The Beijing government has vehemently rejected the charge that China is not providing enough data on the corona wave there.
Meanwhile, Pakistani health authorities are concerned by reports of the country’s first reported infections of the newly known corona variant XBB.1.5. The information was confirmed by the National Institute of Health on Tuesday. Authorities were instructed to tighten controls at airports and border crossings. The institute suspects that the variant arrived in Pakistan via China. Both countries maintain intense economic relations with each other.
After the start of the pandemic, life in Pakistan returned to normal and restrictions were lifted. According to the Ministry of Health, no death related to Covid-19 was recorded in the last 25 days. In total, more than 1.5 million infections and more than 30,000 deaths have been recorded in Pakistan so far.
According to ECDC, the EU health authority, the massive corona wave in China is unlikely to have any impact on the epidemiological situation in Europe. “The variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU and, as such, do not pose a challenge to the immune response of European Union and European Economic Area (EEA) citizens,” it said in a statement on Tuesday. There is also a relatively high rate of immunity and vaccination among EU and EEA citizens.
The authority is monitoring the situation more closely, working closely with the World Health Organization and is in regular contact with Chinese authorities, it said. However, reliable data on Covid-19 cases, deaths and situation in hospitals and intensive care units in China is still lacking.