French Health Minister François Braun and Delegate Transport Minister Clément Beaune visit the Covid-19 screening center at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Roissy, a Paris suburb, January 1, 2023, as France strengthens border health measures for off China arriving passengers. JULIAN DE ROSA / AFP
More than a dozen countries – including France – have imposed Covid tests on passengers arriving from China in recent days amid concerns about a lack of transparency on the number of infections and the emergence of new variants. Beijing strongly condemned this injunction on Tuesday, January 3: “Some countries have introduced entry restrictions aimed only at Chinese travelers. This lacks any scientific basis and certain practices are unacceptable,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
China could “take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” she warned.
The statements come almost a month after China’s surprise lifting of its health restrictions on December 7, a decision that has since prompted an influx of patients into hospitals and victims of Covid-19 into crematoriums. As of Sunday, Beijing will no longer quarantine those arriving from abroad, but will continue to require travelers to have a negative PCR test and has not issued tourist visas for almost three years.
The presentation of a negative Covid-19 screening test before boarding less than forty-eight hours will become mandatory on January 5 for travelers over the age of 11 wishing to travel from China to France, we can in one on Saturday December 31 , read the published decree in the Official Journal.
This photo shows an information document on preventive Covid-19 measures given to passengers on a flight from China at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Roissy, on the outskirts of Paris, January 1, 2023, while France enforces the health measures reinforced at the borders for travelers from China. JULIAN DE ROSA / AFP
“We want to make sure there are no new variants”
“I think we are playing our role by protecting the French and asking for tests,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told Franceinf on Tuesday
“We are doing this in accordance with World Health Organization rules and will continue to do so. […] Our goal, and I think all scientists agree on this point, is really to be able to monitor the evolution of the epidemic. »
Ms Borne recalled that since Sunday, passengers boarding a flight from China to France “have undertaken to accept a test upon arrival, a test which, if positive, is also subject to sequencing. This allows us to obtain data on the development of the virus. Of course we want to make sure that there are no new variants.”
70% of Shanghai’s population potentially affected
China is currently facing its largest outbreak of cases. “Currently, the epidemic in Shanghai is very widespread and may have affected 70% of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more” than the previous outbreak in spring 2022, said Chen Erzhen, vice president of Ruijin Hospital, on a blog that associated with People’s Daily.
China’s economic capital, Shanghai, with a population of 25 million, went into strict lockdown for two months from April while 600,000 residents were infected. Many of them were taken to quarantine centers. Now the Omicron variant is spreading there very quickly.
Chen Erzhen, also a member of Shanghai’s Covid-19 Expert Council, said his hospital is receiving 1,600 emergency room visits a day – double the number before the restrictions were lifted – 80% for patients. According to him, “more than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day” and half of the patients admitted in an emergency are over 65 years old and therefore more vulnerable.
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In other major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Tianjin (north), Chongqing (southwest) and Canton (south), health authorities assume that the peak has already been passed. But this wave of Covid-19 in big cities is expected to soon reach China’s rural areas, where health services are less available.
Strong increase expected in rural areas
As millions of residents will return to their home provinces to celebrate the Lunar New Year from Jan. 21, a senior National Health Commission (NHC) official Jiao Yahui confirmed in a televised interview with CCTV on Monday that the increase will be on the country is expected to be a “great challenge”.
“What worries us the most is that no one has returned to their province for the Lunar New Year in the last three years, but this year it is finally possible. As a result, there could be a surge in travel to the countryside by city dwellers to visit relatives, raising our concerns about the outbreak in rural areas. »
She also acknowledged that hospital emergency rooms were under pressure and promised authorities would coordinate resources so patients in the most remote areas could be treated.