China’s state media downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 wave in the country on January 3, with its scientists expected to give a briefing to the World Health Organization on the development of the virus later in the day.
China’s sudden U-turn on COVID controls on 7 December, as well as the accuracy of its case and death toll figures, have come under increasing scrutiny at home and abroad. prompted some countries to impose travel restrictions.
The policy change followed protests by President Xi Jinping over a “zero COVID” approach, marking the strongest show of public defiance in his decade-long presidency and coinciding with the slowest growth in China in nearly half a century. Is.
As the virus spreads mostly unchecked, funeral parlors are reporting a surge in demand for their services and international health experts are predicting at least one million deaths in the country this year.
China reported three new COVID deaths on Monday, up from one for Sunday. Its official death toll now stands at 5,253 since the pandemic began.
In an article on Tuesday, People’s DailyThe official newspaper of the Communist Party cited several Chinese experts as saying that the illness caused by the virus was relatively mild for most people.
“Among the patients currently admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing, 3% to 4% have serious and critical illnesses,” Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told the newspaper.
Kang Yan, head of Sichuan University’s West China Tianfu Hospital, said a total of 46 critically ill patients have been admitted to intensive care units in the past three weeks, accounting for about 1% of symptomatic infections.
Local health officials said more than 80% of people living in southwestern Sichuan province have been infected.
The World Health Organization on Friday urged Chinese health authorities to regularly share specific and real-time information on the situation of COVID-19 in the country.
The agency has invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a technical advisory group meeting scheduled for Tuesday. It has asked China to share more genetic sequencing data, as well as data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
EU offers free COVID vaccines to China to help contain outbreak financial Times Reported on Tuesday.
The Swedish European Union president said on Monday that EU government health officials would hold talks on Wednesday on a coordinated response to China’s outbreak.
The United States, France, Australia, India and others will require mandatory COVID testing on travelers from China, while Belgium said it will test wastewater from planes from China for new COVID variants.
China has rejected criticism of its COVID data and its state media has called the new restrictions “discriminatory”. Officials have also played down the risk of new variants, saying any new mutations could be more contagious but cause less severe disease.
economic concerns
As the virus spreads, workers and shoppers across China are falling ill, raising concerns about growth prospects in the world’s second-largest economy that are weighing on Asian shares.
Data showed on Tuesday that China’s factory activity shrank at a sharp pace in December as the COVID wave disrupted production and weighed on demand.
There is likely to be a “bush fire” of infections in China in the coming months further hit its economy this year and a drag on global growth, said Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund.
“China is entering its most dangerous week of the pandemic,” warned analysts at Capital Economics.
“The authorities are now making almost no effort to slow the spread of infection, and with migration starting before the Lunar New Year, no part of the country will currently have a major COVID wave.”
Mobility data suggested that economic activity was depressed across the country and would likely remain so until the wave of infections begins to subside.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the domestic tourism market saw 52.71 million visits during the New Year holiday, an increase of only 0.44% year-on-year. It was 43% of the 2019 level before the pandemic.
The ministry said revenue totaled more than 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), up 4% year-on-year but only about 35% of the revenue it made in 2019.
Expectations are high 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. Chinese media reported that some hotels in the southern tourist resort of Sanya are fully booked for this period.