(Beijing) Chinese President Xi Jinping assured Saturday that “the light of hope is before us”, as his country faces an explosion of COVID-19 cases after the abrupt lifting of health restrictions.
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-19”.
Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by an onslaught of mostly elderly patients, crematoriums have been overwhelmed and many pharmacies have run out of fever medication.
PHOTO NG HAN GUAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
China is on a bumpy road back to normal life as schools, malls and restaurants fill up again with the easing of the COVID-19 restriction.
“The prevention and control of the epidemic has entered a new phase. We are still in a difficult moment,” but “the light of hope is ahead of us,” Xi Jinping said in a televised New Year address.
This is the Beijing strongman’s second comment on the outbreak this week.
On Monday, Xi called for measures to “effectively protect people’s lives”.
The country on Saturday reported more than 7,000 new positive cases and one additional death linked to COVID-19 among a population of 1.4 billion. Largely understated figures that appear to be totally out of step with the reality on the ground.
Despite this 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, several European countries including France and Italy, as well as the United States and Japan have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers arriving from China. Canada and Morocco have followed suit.
As of January 5, Ottawa will require a negative COVID-19 test for all travelers arriving from China. The measure is “a response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the People’s Republic of China and due to the limited epidemiological and genome sequencing data available on these cases,” the Canadian government said in a statement.
Morocco prefers purely and simply to prohibit entry into its territory “to all travelers regardless of their nationality” from China.
The ban will come into effect “from January 3 and until further notice”, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Common EU response
For their part, the Member States of the European Union must discuss Wednesday a common response to adopt, announced Saturday Sweden, which ensures from 1er January the six-monthly presidency of the EU.
Stockholm said it had decided to activate the IPCR, a tool that allows the Council to react quickly politically in crisis situations.
“It is important that we put measures in place quickly,” according to a statement from the Swedish government.
The precautionary measures taken by several states are “understandable” in view of the lack of information provided by Beijing, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
This is not the opinion of the European branch of the International Council of Airports (CIA), which represents more than 500 airports in 55 European countries.
“These unilateral actions contradict all the experience and evidence gained over the past three years,” a statement said.
“Imposing further restrictions on travelers from this country is neither scientifically justified nor risk-based,” the CIA said.
Beijing assures that its statistics on COVID-19 since the start of the epidemic have always been transparent.
The WHO announced on Friday evening that it had met with Chinese officials to discuss the outbreak.
“WHO has again requested the regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation, including more data on genetic sequencing and on the impact of the disease, including hospitalizations, admissions to units intensive care and deaths,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
She also called for data on vaccinations carried out and vaccination status, in particular among vulnerable people and those over 60, the WHO added.
The “zero COVID-19” policy has enabled the Chinese population since 2020 to be largely protected from the virus, thanks to generalized screening tests, strict monitoring of movements, but also compulsory confinements and quarantines as soon as cases are discovered. .
These measures, which have largely isolated China from the rest of the planet, have dealt a severe blow to the world’s second largest economy. In recent months, they have aroused growing frustration among the population and have given rise to unusual demonstrations against the government.