Lhe United States has joined a growing number of countries that have decided to impose controls on passengers arriving from China, after the lifting of its anti-Covid restrictions, precautions which the head of the WHO considered “understandable”.
A European health agency, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), has however estimated that the introduction of screening in the EU would be “unjustified” for the time being, given the level immunity in Europe and the presence of the same variants of Covid-19 as in China.
Three years after the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan (center), China put an end without notice on December 7 to its draconian policy known as “zero Covid”.
Since 2020, it has enabled the population to be largely protected from the virus, thanks to generalized screening tests, strict monitoring of movements but also mandatory confinements and quarantines as soon as cases are discovered.
These draconian measures, which kept the country largely isolated from the rest of the planet, dealt a severe blow to the second largest economy in the world and provoked unusual demonstrations of discontent in November.
Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of sick people, most of them elderly, and vulnerable because they have been little or not vaccinated, while many pharmacies are short of fever medication.
Openness and transparency
Despite the epidemic rebound, the authorities will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in China on January 8, and allow Chinese people to travel abroad, after three years of frustration.
As a precaution, the United States and several countries, including Italy and Japan, have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers coming from China.
Neighboring South Korea took the same decision on Friday, effective until “February next year”, said its Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo.
These measures are “understandable” given the lack of information provided by Beijing, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“In the absence of complete information from China, it is understandable that countries take measures that they believe will protect their people,” he said.
Health authorities in China, for their part, assured Thursday that they had always published data “in a desire for openness and transparency”, according to comments quoted by the official news agency China news.
On Friday, only 5,515 new cases and one death were announced by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Figures that no longer seem to reflect reality, however, as widespread screening is no longer mandatory.
“Adapted measures”
China has kept its borders largely closed to foreign nationals since 2020.
The country has not issued tourist visas for almost three years and imposes a mandatory quarantine on arrival. This isolation measure will be lifted on January 8, but a screening test of less than 48 hours will still be required.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron has “requested appropriate measures to protect” the French from the government.
In Brussels, an informal meeting convened by the European Commission, aiming at a “coordinated approach” of the Member States, has not given rise at this stage to a decision being taken one way or another.
At Beijing Capital International Airport, most Chinese interviewed by AFP on Thursday were sympathetic to the measures taken vis-à-vis China.
“Useless”
“Each nation has its own concerns and its own way of protecting itself,” said Huang Hongxu, 21, stressing that the possible spread of new variants was a cause for concern.
A traveler for his part described these measures as “useless” to AFP.
“It’s a bit discriminatory,” said Hu, who declined to give his full name.
In China, “our Covid policy for international arrivals is applied (in the same way for everyone)”, notes the 22-year-old young man. “Why do other countries treat arrivals from China specially?”
On the epidemic front, hospitals are battling an upsurge in cases that is hitting the elderly the hardest.
In Shanghai, AFP journalists saw masked patients being transported on stretchers to a hospital in the city on Thursday. In the establishment, a patient complained of having waited four hours to obtain medication.
30/12/2022 05:59:59 – Beijing (AFP) – © 2022 AFP