While the WHO investigates possible variants, China’s media downplays the severity of COVID.
Reuters, BEIJING/HONG KONG/GENEVA, January 3 – Prior to Tuesday’s briefing by its scientists to the World Health Organization, which was hoping for a “deep discussion” on the evolution of the virus, state media in China downplayed the severity of an increase in COVID-19 infections.
The reliability of China’s case and mortality data has come under increased scrutiny both domestically and internationally in the wake of the country’s dramatic U-turn on COVID regulations on December 7.
China’s foreign ministry referred to some nations’ restrictions on travel admission as “simply illogical” and claimed they “lacked scientific basis.”
Speaking to reporters in Beijing, spokeswoman for the foreign ministry Mao Ning said, “We are prepared to improve dialogue with the globe.
However, “we will take comparable actions in various circumstances in accordance with the concept of reciprocity and are vehemently opposed to attempts to manipulate the epidemic preventive and control measures for political goals.”
Chinese health officials have been advised by the WHO to regularly exchange detailed and up-to-date information on the outbreak. To offer comprehensive information on viral sequencing at a technical advisory committee meeting on Tuesday, the international organisation has invited Chinese scientists. China has also been required to disclose information on hospitalisations, fatalities, and immunisations.
Following protests that represented the greatest display of public disobedience during President Xi Jinping’s decade in office and coincided with the economy’s slowest growth in nearly half a century, China abandoned its “zero-COVID” strategy.
Funeral houses have reported a rise in demand for their services as the virus spreads unchecked, and foreign health experts forecast at least one million deaths in China this year.
China has now officially recorded 5,253 deaths since the start of the epidemic after reporting three further COVID deaths on Monday.
Chinese experts were quoted as saying on Tuesday by the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, that the virus’s disease was generally mild for most people.
According to Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, “severe and critical illnesses account for 3% to 4% of infected patients now admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing.”
Kang Yan, director of West China Tianfu Hospital at Sichuan University, reported that 46 patients, or 1% of symptomatic infections, had been admitted to intensive care units in the previous three weeks.
According to a Reuters witness, the emergency room at the Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai was jam-packed with patients on Tuesday.
While hundreds of people waited to see a doctor, some were receiving IV therapy in beds in the hallway. How many people had COVID wasn’t immediately obvious.
WHO SUMMARY
A WHO spokesman stated that a “deep debate” regarding the circulating strains in China and around the world was anticipated before the meeting on Tuesday. Chinese scientists were also slated to deliver a presentation.
Tuesday’s committee meeting was attended by two eminent scientists who also stated they would look for a “more accurate picture” of the situation in China. After the confidential meeting was over, they made no additional remarks about it.
The WHO representative continued by saying that the organisation would address the situation later, perhaps at a news briefing on Wednesday.
However, other observers questioned if Beijing would be completely honest.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said, “I don’t think China will be very honest in giving information.”
“They would prefer to keep it to themselves or claim that nothing new happened. My own impression is that there is nothing new, but the problem is that China’s transparency issue has existed for a long time.”
The United States, France, Italy, and other countries will demand COVID testing from Chinese travellers, and Belgium announced it will check plane wastewater for new forms.
Health officials from the European Union will gather on Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response.
Beginning on January 8, China will no longer require incoming travellers to undergo a quarantine. However, a pre-departure test will still be required.
PERILOUS WEEKS
As more Chinese shoppers and workers become unwell, worries about the near-term prognosis for the second-largest economy in the world grow, prompting instability in international financial markets.
In response to growing worries about the rate of infections, the European Union has supplied free COVID-19 vaccines to China.
An EU official said Beijing has not yet reacted to the offer, but the action comes after Germany last month sent 11,500 BioNTech (22UAy.DE) COVID shots to China for use by German citizens there.
Only Chinese-made vaccinations, which are viewed as being less effective than Western vaccines based on mRNA technology, have been used by China up to this point.
According to a study published on Tuesday, industry activity in China decreased in November.
90% of the company’s original expectations were not met by the December shipments from Foxconn’s (2317.TW) Zhengzhou iPhone facility, which were hampered by worker departures and protests related to a COVID epidemic.
According to Kristalina Georgieva, the president of the International Monetary Fund, a “bushfire” of illnesses in China in the upcoming months is expected to harm its economy this year and slow global growth.
The most hazardous weeks of the pandemic have begun in China, according to Capital Economics researchers.
The 52.71 million domestic visits made over the New Year vacation, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, generated 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), increasing 4% from the previous year but only approximately 35% of the previous year before the pandemic in 2019.
Expectations are higher for the significant Lunar New Year holiday, which falls late this month and during which some specialists believe the number of infections will have peaked almost everywhere.
