France and the United Kingdom on Friday joined a growing number of countries around the world that decided to impose controls on passengers coming from China, after Beijing lifted anti-Covid restrictions, a precaution deemed “understandable” by the WHO.
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Despite a recommendation from a European health agency, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), deeming screening in the EU “unjustified” given the level of immunity in Europe and the presence of the same variants of COVID-19 as in China, Paris and Madrid have decided on control measures.
Three years after the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan (center), China put an end to its draconian policy known as “zero Covid” on December 7.
Since 2020, it has allowed the population to be largely protected from the virus, thanks to generalized screening tests, strict monitoring of movements but at the cost of compulsory confinements and quarantines as soon as cases are discovered.
These extreme measures, which kept the country largely isolated from the rest of the planet, dealt a severe blow to the world’s second largest economy 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.
Divided Europe
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, Japan or Israel, have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers coming from China. South Korea made a similar decision on Friday, effective until February 2023.
Spain has planned for its part to require “a negative test” or “a complete vaccination course” for travelers coming from China.
France, the government announced, and the United Kingdom, according to media reports, also decided to impose negative tests on travelers coming from China.
Illustrating the divisions in Europe on the response to be given to the new situation in China, Germany pleaded for its part in favor of monitoring Covid variants in European airports, without going so far as to impose tests. Switzerland said on Friday that it did not plan to tighten its controls on travelers coming from China.
The precautionary measures taken by some countries around the world are “understandable” in view of 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.
Beijing countered that its statistics on the progression of Covid had always been transparent.
“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has shared reliable information and data with the international community, including the WHO, in an open and transparent manner,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. , Wang Wenbin.
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.
“To protect yourself”
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.
At Beijing Capital International Airport, most Chinese interviewed by AFP on Thursday were sympathetic to the measures taken vis-à-vis China.
“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. On condition of anonymity, another traveler, however, deemed these measures “unnecessary”.