An entire Chinese province, that of Henan, has been literally brought to its knees by Covid, according to a regional health official, who said nearly 90% of residents have contracted the virus.
Henan is the third most populous province in China. According to Kan Quancheng, as of Jan. 6, 89% of the population was infected. So, taking the percentage into account, it’s about 88.5 million people out of the province’s nearly 100 million population. The number of doctor visits for fever peaked on December 19 and has been steadily declining since then, the official said.
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GIACOMO GALEAZZI January 08, 2023
China reopens ahead of the Lunar New Year
But despite an unprecedented wave of infections, China, with its population of 1.4 billion, has brutally lifted all the health restrictions against Covid that have been in place for months. Now authorities are predicting a new wave of infections during the Lunar New Year (which falls on January 22 this year), when millions of Chinese will return from the cities to rural areas to reunite with their families. As the celebrations drew closer, more than 34 million rides had already been recorded on Saturday. The first people from abroad to arrive in the country after the quarantine requirement was lifted were the 387 passengers on two flights from Singapore and Toronto, which landed in Guangzhou and Shenzhen respectively, writes Al Jazeera, which has received enthusiastic comments from Chinese who can finally travel.
To date, according to British research firm Airfinity, there are 2.5 million new cases of Covid in China and 16,600 deaths every day. The peak of infections from this wave should be reached around January 13 at 3.7 million daily cases, with deaths expected ten days later at 25,000 deaths per day. Data that cannot be verified due to the Beijing leadership’s usual opacity in reporting the true numbers of infections and victims, but which has raised alarms in European Union countries, forcing them to face the sudden change of line provoked by the “Zero” has been exceeded “policy covid” is defended by army and police to be unconditionally reopened.
“A next meeting of the Health Security Committee will take place next week on January 11. It will be the first opportunity for Member States to report back to the Commission and others on the measures they have taken,” announced the spokesman for the European Commission two days ago When asked about the real scientific possibility of carrying out Covid tests on travelers from China, Tim McPhie emphasized that “there is an agreement that all member states should implement control measures for passengers from China and address them to the member states. It is now up to the Member States to implement these measures as soon as possible.”
Covid, as of today, China lifts the quarantine for arrivals from abroad
January 08, 2023
Clashes at the Covid test factory
Meanwhile, in China, the lifting of the draconian anti-Covid policy is causing the first economic impact on workers in factories of clients such as test kits. A video posted online shows violent clashes between workers at a tampon factory and riot police. According to the video’s author, the protest would be the result of layoffs at the Zybio pharmaceutical manufacturing plant and non-payment of workers.
Cartabellotta: “The effectiveness of the screening of arriving travelers is questionable”
In Italy, meanwhile, the President of the Gimbe Foundation, Nino Cartabellotta, declared that the “screening of travelers arriving from China” is “of dubious effectiveness in containing the viral spread” of Sars Cov-2. In the presentation of the Foundation’s independent monitoring – conducted using data from the week of December 30, 2022 to January 5, 2023 – Cartabellotta gives at least three reasons for the ineffectiveness of the verification tool for travelers from China: “First, less than 10% of passengers arriving on direct flights; second, because the extreme contagiousness of Omicron reduces the already modest effectiveness of the screenings documented in the literature; finally, because the administration of the positives would continue to be entrusted to the fiduciary isolation. The only real benefit of these screens is to identify new variants early on.”