Covid tests required of its passengers deemed ‘unacceptable’ by China – 01/03/2023 22:28

At Tongren Hospital in Shanghai, China, January 3, 2023 (AFP/Hector Retamal)

Beijing on Tuesday denounced the imposition of Covid tests by a dozen countries on travelers from China, when a very large majority of European Union members supported such a measure.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “Some countries have set entry restrictions that only target travelers from China. This is without scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable.” China may take “countermeasures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity”.

In the recommendations, a panel of health experts from 27 European Union member states (the Committee on Health Security) appealed in Brussels on Tuesday to impose tests on travelers arriving from China “overwhelmingly,” according to a speech to the European Commission. .

They also studied mask wearing, aircraft sewage control, and increased testing, with genetic sequencing, at arrival airports, in order to identify possible new variants.

“These measures must target the most suitable flights and airports and be implemented in a coordinated manner (across the EU) to ensure their effectiveness,” the spokesperson said. A new European meeting is scheduled for Wednesday on this subject.

In Washington, the US diplomacy spokesperson, for his part, emphasized that the US requirement to provide a negative Covid-19 test at the country’s borders for travelers arriving from China was based on “only science” and that it was based solely on “public health concerns”.

On Tuesday, Austria announced its decision to analyze waste water from planes coming from China.

China’s comments come nearly a month after China abruptly lifted its health restrictions on December 7, a decision that has since led to an influx of hospitalized patients and Covid victims into crematoriums.

Beijing no longer quarantines people arriving from abroad but continues to require a negative PCR test from travelers and has not issued tourist visas for nearly three years.

More than a dozen countries have imposed Covid tests on passengers arriving from China in recent days, concerned about a lack of transparency about infection figures and fearful that new alternatives will emerge.

“I think we are doing our part by protecting the French and ordering tests,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne responded Tuesday on Radio. “We will continue to do so.”

– 100 ambulances a day –

China is currently facing the worst outbreak ever. In Shanghai in particular, two-thirds of the population could have had Covid in recent weeks, a senior official at one of the city’s main hospitals estimated Tuesday.

At Tongren Hospital in Shanghai, China, January 3, 2023 (AFP/Hector Retamal)

China’s economic capital, a city of 25 million people, was under heavy guard for two months from April. Many of them have been transferred to quarantine centres.

Now the Omicron variant is spreading out there very quickly.

In other major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Tianjin (north), Chongqing (southwest) and Canton (south), health authorities believe the peak has already passed.

Dr. Chen, who is also a member of Shanghai’s Covid expert council, said his hospital was receiving 1,600 emergency admissions a day — double the period before restrictions were lifted — with 80% of them sick.

– Chinese New Year –

At Tongren Hospital in Shanghai, AFP journalists saw patients receiving emergency care outside the building on Tuesday, overwhelmed by an influx of patients.

The corridors were filled with dozens of elderly patients, lying on beds and having IV medications. Some wore oxygen masks.

At Tongren Hospital in Shanghai, China, January 3, 2023 (AFP/Hector Retamal)

This wave of Covid in big cities is expected to hit rural China soon, where health services are reduced, as millions return to their home provinces to celebrate the Lunar New Year from January 21.

In an interview with state television CCTV on Monday, Jiao Yahui, an official with the National Health Commission (NHC), acknowledged that the expected outbreak in the countryside was a “huge challenge”.

“Our biggest concern is that over the past three years, no one has returned to their county to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but this year it is finally possible,” she said.