What is required of China? What does the West want from China? Two questions seem legitimate, in light of the plight of the worsening health crisis in China, following Beijing's decision to abandon "zero Covid" strategic measures on December 7, 2022; This led to an alarming rise in the number of new infections. And with China abandoning compulsory examination, sanitary isolation, and not announcing the daily number of injuries and deaths; Western health experts have speculated about millions of infections and thousands of deaths in China. In light of the Chinese silence regarding the rumors about the fullness of Chinese hospitals with patients, and the busyness of the shops of undertakers of burial and cremation of the victims of Covid-19, other countries came out with decisions imposing preventive health restrictions on travelers coming from China, and China did not pay attention to what is spread by its opponents in the West and Asia; As it continued the steps of liberation from “zero Covid”, by announcing the opening of the door to granting entry visas to foreign tourists. It also decided to re-issue passports for its citizens wishing to travel abroad, to spend their holidays, or to conduct their business. On Tuesday, China announced three new deaths from Covid-19. But Westerners say that this small number is not logically consistent with the pictures that confirm the busyness of the burial undertakers' shops in preparing dozens of bodies for burial and cremation. Reports indicated that long lines were regular in front of hospitals in several Chinese cities. And news quoted the director of a funeral home as saying that the shop located in Chengdu deals with 200 bodies per day. One of the workers there said that they do not even have time to eat since Beijing decided to cancel “Zero Covid”. He added that the shop was dealing with between 30 and 50 corpses per day before China's decision to cancel the strict health measures. A worker at a crematorium said that their appointment book does not have any vacant dates until the beginning of 2023. Government newspapers quoted an employee of Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, Zhang Yuhua, as saying that the hospital receives between 450 and 550 patients with Covid-19 every day.
The travel fever ignited China's decision to cancel the sanitary isolation requirement for those coming from abroad, as of January 8, 2023. The Chinese, who were prevented from traveling for the three years following the outbreak of the new Corona virus, flocked to airline ticket booking sites. Trip.com reported (Tuesday) that traffic on the site increased by 254% on Tuesday morning, compared to the previous day. The most popular places for Chinese travel are Singapore (600%), South Korea (400%), followed by Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand. India and Japan announced that they would require those coming from China to show a negative result for a recent examination. Japan said that if the diagnosis of any person coming from China was confirmed, they would have to stay in an isolation center for a week. The United States said it decided to resort to a similar measure, due to "the lack of transparency of Chinese information." The Philippines stated that it was considering similar action. Philippine Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista M said: We must be very careful if the number of injuries is large in China. And Malaysia decided to impose measures related to tracking and monitoring those coming from China. And China announced that it had decided to subject 2% of arrivals to all its airports to an examination, to ensure that any new viral strain was discovered before it spread in the country. Yesterday, the Chinese National Immigration Administration announced that it had decided to resume issuing passports to Chinese citizens. She added that she will start receiving requests from foreigners to extend or renew residence visas, as of January 8. Yesterday, Taiwan announced that it would reduce examination and sanitary isolation measures, in preparation for receiving tens of thousands of people who will leave the island to enjoy the Chinese New Year holidays in China. Although Taiwan does not allow entry of tourists from China, a large number of its citizens work in and invest in China. Scientists in Western countries fear that the accelerating outbreak in China of Covid-19 will lead to the emergence of a new viral strain. And the GISAID laboratory, an alliance of world scientists specializing in knowing the genetic sequence of Covid-19 infections, announced on Tuesday that China had strengthened surveillance measures to confront the worsening outbreak. He added that the data shared by China with the laboratory confirms that the current large outbreak in China is of strains present in the rest of the world since July 2022.
Despite Western and Asian concerns that the current viral outbreak in China will have negative repercussions on those countries; However, Beijing's decision to re-issue passports to its citizens brought great relief. Because it means that Chinese tourists who are known for their abundance of money will flock to the capitals and tourist areas of their countries during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. It is worth noting that prior to the outbreak of the Corona virus, Chinese tourists represented a large segment of the tourism industry in the Asian countries neighboring China, Europe, and the United States. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesterday that opening the door for the return of foreign tourists to China will have great benefits for the growth of the global economy. He added that China will cooperate with all countries to ensure the stability of industrial and trade supply chains, which is conducive to the recovery of the global economy. However, Bloomberg reported yesterday (Wednesday) that health and economic experts believe that the ruling Chinese Communist Party will keep restrictions on the number of tourists coming to China until mid-2023, at the very least, until China can vaccinate millions of its elderly with the stimulus dose of Corona vaccines. It is a measure that experts insist is necessary to ensure that any public health crisis is averted.
Germany: Debate over the removal of safeguards
A debate and debate broke out between the poles of the coalition that governs Germany, regarding whether the remaining preventive measures aimed at stopping the new Corona virus should be canceled. This was after one of the most prominent German virologists said that the global epidemic was over. Germany had canceled most of the preventive measures; But, unlike the rest of its allies in Europe, it still imposes mandatory wearing of a face mask (muzzle) on all trains and buses. The mask is still mandatory in health facilities. In addition to the muzzle, a negative result of the Corona examination must be presented when entering hospitals and nursing homes. For domestic transportation, the measures are determined by the government of each of Germany's 16 states. Professor Christian Drosten, a professor of virology at Charite Hospital in Berlin, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper, in its Tuesday edition, that he saw no justification for continuing to impose preventive health measures. He added: We expect any outbreak of COVID-19 as a locally endemic disease during the current winter. And my estimate is that the virus endemic in the country means that the global epidemic is over. He added that this could change if a high-risk mutated viral strain emerges. "But I don't expect that at the moment," he said. German Justice Minister Marco Bushmann said that Professor Drosten was the most conservative scientist during the health crisis. He added that the remaining preventive measures should be cancelled. And he added that it is possible to cancel it by the text of the law, before the date of its review by April 7, 2023. However, the Minister of Health, Professor Karl Lauterbach, a doctor who specializes in combating infectious diseases and epidemics, said that canceling preventive measures would be a heinous negligence. He emphasized that Professor Drosten had not called for this. Lauterbach added that residents of nursing homes still needed protection. He pointed to the pressures that health facilities are currently facing due to new infections with the virus. And he added: Hospitals are full of patients, health personnel are working beyond what their energies allow, deaths are high, and winter is not over yet.
Okaz (London, Beijing) @OKAZ_online