As several countries impose COVID testing requirements in people travelling from China amid a surge of infections, the country’s state media has hit back and called these mandates “discriminatory”.
On December 7, Beijing scrapped most of its zero-Covid policy restrictions in the country which has caused a massive increase in infections. China recently also announced lifting of restrictions on overseas travellers, leading to its citizens travelling abroad after the borders remained shut for over three years.
This has led to a fear worldwide that passengers from China might carry infections with them. US now requires a negative test certificate from those coming from China. South Korea, India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan have also imposed COVID tests for travellers from China.
“The real intention is to sabotage China’s three years of COVID-19 control efforts and attack the country’s system,” state-run tabloid Global Times said in an article late on Thursday, calling the restrictions “unfounded” and “discriminatory.”
China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from January 8. But it will still demand a negative PCR test result within 48 hours before departure.
Just yesterday, more than half of passengers on a flight from China to Italy tested positive for COVID-19. Italy has urged the rest of the European Union to follow its lead, but France, Germany and Portugal have said they do not see a new need for new travel restrictions. Meanwhile, Austria has looking at the economic aspect of Chinese tourists’ return to Europe.
Global spending by Chinese visitors was worth more than $250 billion a year before the pandemic.
The United States has raised concerns about potential mutations of the virus amidst lack of data from China.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention is even considering sampling wastewater from international aircraft to track any emerging new variants, the agency told Reuters.
China reported only one death from the infection for Thursday, increasing scepticism over data as the figures do not match the experience of other countries after they re-opened.
China’s official death toll stands at 5,247 since the pandemic began. On the other hand, United States has reported over a million deaths. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million, has reported more than 11,000 deaths.
UK-based health data firm Airfinity said on Thursday around 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID. Cumulative deaths in China since Dec. 1 have likely reached 100,000, with infections totalling 18.6 million, it said.
Airfinity expects China’s COVID infections to reach their first peak on January 13, with 3.7 million cases a day.
(With inputs from agencies)
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