China has denounced the decision to impose restrictions on Chinese travelers due to the high number of cases of coronavirus on its soil, warning that it may take similar measures.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters that the restrictions targeting China lacked scientific basis and were unreasonable.
International health officials have criticized Beijing for not publishing data on the spread of the virus and possible new strains.
The United States and about a dozen other countries said they would require those arriving from China to provide negative test certificates.
Many Chinese are rushing to book their first overseas trips in years after Beijing lifted its travel restrictions.
China’s state media played down the severity of the COVID-19 surge ahead of an expected briefing Tuesday by its scientists to the World Health Organization, which hopes to hold a “detailed discussion” on the evolution of the virus.
China’s sudden shift in Covid controls on December 7, as well as the accuracy of its case and death data, have come under increasing scrutiny at home and abroad.
“We are willing to improve communication with the world,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
“But … we firmly oppose attempts to manipulate epidemic prevention and control measures for political purposes, and we will take appropriate measures in different situations, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity,” she added.
China has shifted its stance away from the “zero Covid” policy championed by President Xi Jinping in the wake of protests, the strongest public challenge of his decade in power.
As the virus spreads unchecked, the number of funerals increases. Officials reported an increase in demand for their services. International health experts expect at least 1 million deaths in China this year.
China reported three new deaths from the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the official death toll since the pandemic began to 5,253.
The official People’s Daily of the Communist Party quoted Chinese experts as saying that the disease caused by the virus was relatively mild for most people.
She added, “Serious and critical cases constitute 3 percent to 4 percent of the total number of injured.”
Tong Zhaohui, deputy head of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told the newspaper that infected patients are now being admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing.
About 46 patients in intensive care units were admitted in the past three weeks, or 1 percent of symptomatic infections, said Kang Yan, head of West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University.
Archyde.com quoted a witness as saying that the emergency area of Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai was crowded with patients on Tuesday.
Some patients were lying in beds in a corridor receiving treatment, while dozens were queuing around them, waiting to see a doctor. It is not clear how many people have been infected with the Corona virus.
image copyright Archyde.com
WHO meeting
The World Health Organization has urged Chinese health officials to regularly share specific, real-time information about the outbreak.
The organization called on Chinese scientists to provide detailed viral sequence data at the Technical Advisory Group meeting on Tuesday.
It also asked China to share data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
A WHO spokesman said before the meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon Geneva time that a “detailed discussion” on the spread of strains in China and globally is expected to start, and Chinese scientists are expected to make a detailed presentation.
But some experts were skeptical that China would be so forthright in this regard.
“I don’t think China will be very honest in revealing information,” said Alfred Wu, assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
He added, “They prefer to keep it to themselves or say nothing happened, nothing new. My sense is we can assume it’s nothing new… But the problem is the issue of transparency in China.”
The United States, France and other countries will require COVID-19 tests on travelers arriving from China, while Belgium said it will test sewage on planes carrying them for new strains.
European Union health officials will meet Wednesday on a coordinated response.
China will stop requiring incoming travelers to enter quarantine from January 8, but will still conduct pre-departure testing.
As Chinese workers and shoppers fall ill, concerns about near-term economic growth prospects in the world’s second-largest economy are mounting, causing global financial markets to turn volatile.
A survey released Tuesday showed that Chinese factory activity contracted last month.
December shipments from Foxon’s Zhengzhou iPhone factory, which has been disrupted by worker departures and unrest amid the Covid outbreak, accounted for 90 percent of the company’s plans.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said that the severe spread of infection in China in the coming months could hurt its economy this year, and push down global growth.
Capital Economics analysts have warned that China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the epidemic.
They added that mobility data indicates that economic activity has slowed nationwide, and is likely to remain so until infections subside.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said 52.71 million domestic trips during the New Year holiday brought in 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), up 4 percent year on year, but only about 35 percent from the year before the epidemic hit in 2019.
Expectations rise around the Lunar New Year holiday, late this month, when some experts predict infections will peak in many places.