The WHO announced on Friday that it had met with Chinese officials to discuss the outbreak.
Beijing:
President Xi Jinping said on Saturday the “light of hope is right ahead” as China faces an explosion of Covid-19 cases after an abrupt lifting of restrictions.
Three years after the coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Beijing this month began abandoning its strict containment policy known as “zero-Covid.”
Since then, Chinese hospitals have been plagued by a flood of mostly elderly patients, crematoria have been overwhelmed and many pharmacies have run out of fever medication.
“Epidemic prevention and control is entering a new phase… Everyone is working with determination, and the light of hope is right before us,” Xi said in a televised New Year address.
It was the second time the Chinese president commented on the outbreak this week. On Monday he called for measures to “effectively protect people’s lives”.
China on Saturday reported more than 7,000 new infections and one death related to Covid in a population of 1.4 billion – but the numbers don’t seem to be keeping up with reality on the ground.
Authorities have announced they will end mandatory quarantine on arrival for travelers entering China from Jan. 8 and will allow Chinese people to travel abroad after three years of frustration.
In response, several European countries, including France and Italy, as well as the United States and Japan, have said they will require negative tests from passengers arriving from China, largely over fears of new variants.
Canada said on Saturday it is joining the list of countries requiring negative tests, citing “the limited epidemiological and viral genome sequence data available” on recent Covid cases in China.
Morocco, meanwhile, went a step further and announced that it would ban all incoming travelers from China, regardless of nationality, “to avoid a new wave of contamination in Morocco and all its consequences”.
‘Understandable’
The precautionary measures taken by several states are “understandable” given the lack of information about the outbreak from Beijing, said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Without comprehensive information from China, it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe can protect their people,” he said.
But the European arm of the International Airports Council, which represents more than 500 airports in 55 European countries, denounced the new Covid controls on Saturday.
“These unilateral measures are contrary to all the experience and evidence gathered over the past three years,” it said in a statement.
“Imposing other restrictions on travelers from this country is neither scientifically justified nor risk-based.”
European countries will meet next week to discuss a common response to the problem, with EU Council President-elect Sweden saying it is “seeking a common policy across the EU when it comes to introducing possible entry restrictions”.
The WHO announced Friday night that it had met with Chinese officials to discuss the outbreak.
“The WHO again called for the regular sharing of specific, real-time data on the epidemiological situation – including further genetic sequencing data, data on disease impact including hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and deaths,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
It also called for data on vaccinations, particularly among vulnerable people, including those over 60.
Beijing says its Covid statistics have been transparent since the pandemic began.
Its zero-Covid policy had largely protected the Chinese population since 2020 through mass testing, strict movement surveillance and quarantine orders.
But the strategy isolated the country from the rest of the world and dealt a severe blow to the world’s second largest economy.
The draconian measures sparked nationwide protests last month in a rare demonstration of dissent against the ruling Communist Party.
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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