Employees at Rome–Fiumicino airport, dressed in protective suits, help travelers arriving from China, after testing them for Covid, on December 29, 2022 (AFP/Filippo MONTEFORTE)
France and the United Kingdom joined a growing number of countries on Friday that decided to impose controls on passengers arriving from China, after Beijing lifted anti-Covid restrictions, a precaution deemed “understandable” by the WHO. , who met with Chinese officials.
Despite a recommendation from a European health agency, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), deeming screening in the EU “unjustified” given the level of immunity in Europe and the presence of the same variants of Covid-19 as in China, Paris and Madrid have decided to take control measures.
Three years after the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan (center), China put an end to its draconian policy known as “zero Covid” on December 7.
Since 2020, it has allowed the population to be largely protected from the virus, thanks to generalized screening tests, strict monitoring of movements but at the cost of compulsory confinements and quarantines as soon as cases are discovered.
These extreme measures, which largely isolated China from the rest of the planet, dealt it a severe blow and provoked unusual demonstrations of discontent in November.
Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of patients, most of them elderly and vulnerable because they have been little or not vaccinated, while many pharmacies are short of fever medication.
– WHO/China meeting –
Despite this epidemic rebound, the authorities will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in China on January 8 and allow Chinese people to travel abroad, after three years of frustration.
As a precaution, the United States and several other countries, including Italy, Japan and Israel, have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers arriving from China. South Korea made a similar decision on Friday, effective until February 2023.
A patient with Covid in a hospital corridor in Tangshan (northeast China), December 30, 2022 (AFP / Noel Celis)
France and the United Kingdom immediately announced that they had also decided to require travelers boarding in China to present a negative test carried out less than two days before on departure from their plane. This decision will apply from January 5 in the United Kingdom, in the first days of January in France.
Spain has planned for its part to require “a negative test” or “a complete vaccination course” for travelers arriving from China.
Illustrating the divisions in Europe over the response to the new situation in China, Germany pleaded for its part in favor of monitoring Covid variants in European airports, without going so far as to impose tests. Switzerland said on Friday that it had no plans to tighten its controls on travelers from China.
The precautionary measures taken by several states are “understandable” in view of the lack of information provided by Beijing, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “In the absence of complete information from China, it is understandable that countries take measures that they believe will protect their people,” he said.
Beijing countered that its statistics on the progression of Covid had always been transparent.
The crew of a plane from China arrives at Los Angeles airport on December 3, 2021 (AFP/Archives/Frederic J. BROWN)
“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has been sharing reliable information and data with the international community, including the WHO, in an open and transparent way,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. , Wang Wenbin.
On Friday, only 5,515 new cases and one death were announced by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Figures that no longer seem to reflect reality, however, as widespread screening is no longer mandatory.
The WHO announced on Friday evening that it had met with Chinese officials to discuss the outbreak. “WHO has again requested the regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation, including more data on genetic sequencing and on the impact of the disease, including hospitalizations, admissions to units intensive care and deaths,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
She also called for data on vaccinations carried out and vaccination status, in particular among vulnerable people and those over 60, the WHO added.
– “To protect yourself” –
China has kept its borders largely closed to foreign nationals since 2020.
Passengers in a departures terminal at Beijing Capital International Airport on December 29, 2022 (AFP/Noel Celis)
It has not issued tourist visas for nearly three years and imposes a mandatory quarantine on arrival. This isolation measure will be lifted on January 8, but a screening test of less than 48 hours will be required.
At Beijing Capital International Airport, most Chinese interviewed by AFP on Thursday were understanding of the measures taken vis-à-vis their country.
“Each nation has its own concerns and its own way of protecting itself,” commented Huang Hongxu, 21, stressing that the possible spread of new variants was a cause for concern. On condition of anonymity, another traveler, however, deemed these measures “unnecessary”.
© 2022 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
