As more and more countries impose travel restrictions on Chinese travelers, the World Health Organization (WHO) requires more up-to-date data and regular reports on the development of CoV from China due to the current wave of CoV in the People’s Republic. This also included information on genome sequencing and numbers of hospital admissions and deaths, the WHO announced yesterday.
9,000 deaths every day?
A group of experts from the organization wants to hold a meeting on January 3, to which they invited Chinese scientists to share their data with the WHO. According to British experts, the number of deaths from CoV in China has likely increased recently to 9,000 a day. That would nearly double last week’s estimate.
More and more countries with entry requirements
More and more countries are responding to the CoV wave in China with restrictions on travelers from the People’s Republic. In addition to the US, Britain, South Korea, India, Israel and Japan, EU countries, Spain, France and Italy, now also require negative tests.
Following an emergency meeting on Thursday, the European Union’s Health Committee has waived an EU-wide testing obligation. The European Health Authority (ECDC) described such a step as unjustified, as the variants circulating in China have already been found in the EU. She referred to the high immunization and vaccination rates in the EU.
Chinese state media has criticized restrictions imposed by individual countries as targeted discrimination.