They follow several other countries, such as the United States, Italy and Japan, which have made similar decisions in recent days in view of the outbreak of cases in China since the lifting of health restrictions.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The list continues to lie down. Friday, December 30, South Korea, Israel and Spain, in turn, decided to impose restrictions on travelers from China. The latter will have to present a negative screening test to enter the territory of these three countries.
Since the lifting of health restrictions against COVID-19 in China, the international community is concerned about an epidemic rebound and the appearance of new variants. As a precaution, the United States and several countries, including Italy and Japan, had announced on Wednesday that they would demand results of negative tests from passengers from China.
“Understandable” measures, estimates the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, given the little information provided by Beijing. In France, Emmanuel Macron “asked for suitable protective measures” from the population to the government.
In Brussels, an informal meeting convened by the European Commission on Thursday, aimed at “a coordinated approach” of the member states, did not give rise to a decision -making in one direction or another. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has estimated that the implementation of screening in the European Union would be “unjustified” for the time being, in view of the level of immunity in Europe and the Presence of the same variants of the COVID-19 on the old continent as in China.
submerged Chinese hospitals
Three years after the appearance of the first cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan (Hubei province), China ended without notice, on December 7, to its draconian policy called “zero covid”. Since 2020, it had enabled the population to be largely protected from the virus, thanks to generalized screening tests, but at the cost of strict monitoring of displacements and confinements and compulsory quarantines as soon as cases are discovered.
These measures, which held the country largely isolated from the rest of the planet, brought a tough blow to the second world economy and caused, in November, demonstrations of unusual discontent.
Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of patients, mostly elderly and vulnerable because little or not vaccinated, while many pharmacies lack fever medication.
Figures not reflecting reality
Despite the resurgence of the epidemic, the authorities will cease, on January 8, the compulsory quarantines on arrival in China, and will authorize the Chinese to travel abroad, after three years during which the country has maintained its borders largely closed to foreigners and no longer delivered tourist visas. A screening test of less than forty-eight hours will nevertheless be required.
The health authorities in China assured, Thursday, that they have always published data “in a desire for opening and transparency”, according to remarks cited by the official agency China Nouvelle.
Friday, only 5,515 new cases and a death were announced by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Figures that do not seem to reflect reality, generalized screenings are no longer compulsory.