China’s abrupt reversal on Covid controls on December 7, as well as the accuracy of its case and mortality data, has come under increasing scrutiny at home and abroad. abroad and have prompted some countries to impose travel restrictions.
The change in policy followed protests against the “zero covidapproach championed by President Xi Jinping, marking the strongest show of public defiance of his decade-old presidency and coinciding with the slowest growth in China in nearly half a century.
As the virus spreads unchecked, funeral homes are reporting an increase in demand for their services and international health experts predict at least one million deaths in the world’s most populous country this year.
China reported three new Covid deaths for Monday, versus one for Sunday. Its official toll since the start of the pandemic now stands at 5,253.
In an article published on Tuesday, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, quoted several Chinese experts as saying that illness caused by the virus was relatively mild for most people.
“Severe and critical illnesses account for 3% to 4% of infected patients currently admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing,” Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, told the newspaper.
Kang Yanhead of West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University, said that in the past three weeks, a total of 46 critically ill patients have been admitted to intensive care units, accounting for about 1% of symptomatic infections .
More than 80% of people living in the southwest province of Sichuan have been infected, local health authorities said.
The World Health Organization on Friday urged Chinese health authorities to regularly share specific, real-time information on the Covid situation.
The agency has invited Chinese scientists to present detailed viral sequencing data at a technical advisory group meeting scheduled for Tuesday. He also asked China to share data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
The European Union has offered free Covid vaccines to China to help contain the outbreak, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
EU government health officials will hold talks on Wednesday on a coordinated response to the outbreak in China, the Swedish EU presidency announced on Monday.
The United States, France, Australia, India and others will require mandatory Covid tests on travelers from China, while Belgium has said it will test sewage from planes arriving from China for new Covid variants.
China dismissed criticism of its Covid data and said any new mutations could be more infectious but less harmful.
“According to the political logic of some people in Europe and the United States, whether China opens up or does not open up is also the wrong thing to do,” state broadcaster CCTV said in a comment on Monday evening. .
ECONOMIC CONCERNS
As Chinese workers and buyers fall ill, worries grow over the growth prospects of the world’s second-largest economy, weighing on Asian stocks.
Tuesday’s data showed Chinese factory activity shrank at a faster pace in December as the Covid wave disrupted production and hurt demand.
December shipments from Foxconn’s iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, disrupted late last year by a Covid outbreak that caused worker layoffs and unrest, accounted for 90% of the company’s initial plans. company, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
A “bushfire” of infections in China in the coming months is likely to hurt its economy this year and dampen global growth, said International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.
“China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,” analysts at Capital Economics warned.
“Authorities are making almost no effort to slow the spread of infections, and with the start of migration before the start of the Lunar New Year, all parts of the country that are not currently in a major wave of Covid will soon be. “
Mobility data suggests economic activity was depressed nationwide and would likely remain so until the wave of infection begins to subside, they added.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the domestic tourism market saw 52.71 million trips during the New Year holiday, a flat year-on-year figure and only 43 percent of travel levels. 2019, before the pandemic.
The revenue generated amounted to more than 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), up 4% year on year but only about 35% of the revenue created in 2019, the ministry said.
Expectations are higher for China’s biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year, later this month, when some experts expect daily Covid cases to have already peaked in many parts of the country. . Some hotels in the southern resort town of Sanya are full for the period, Chinese media reported.
