EU considers alignment on China passengers as COVID cases surge

European Union nations will attempt to construct a coordinated method to incoming airline passengers from China because the world’s most populous nation is hit by a wave of COVID-19 infections and as a number of EU member nations introduced particular person efforts over the previous week.

China’s abrupt U-turn on COVID controls in early December and the accuracy of its official COVID information have come beneath scrutiny at house and abroad, prompting a lot of international locations to impose journey curbs on travellers from China out of worry of introducing new variants.

Some worldwide well being specialists have predicted that a couple of million deaths are potential because the virus is now spreading unchecked since Beijing dropped its strict “zero-COVID” insurance policies final month.

Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, stated officers from the member states will maintain an Built-in Political Disaster Response assembly on Wednesday to see if entry necessities all through the bloc are mandatory for guests from China.

“It is necessary that we get the required measures in place shortly,” Swedish Well being Minister Jakob Forssmed stated on Monday.

Belgium stated late on Monday that it could be checking wastewater from planes arriving in from China to see if assessments revealed new clues about any probably harmful variants amongst incoming passengers. It added that it could urge guests from China who really feel unwell to take a COVID take a look at.

Belgian well being minister Frank Vandenbroucke stated extra wanted to be carried out, however solely in a coordinated method among the many EU’s 27 member states.

“It might be a superb sign towards China if all EU nations would say collectively: ‘Should you come to Europe it’s a must to be examined first,’” he informed VRT community.

France, Spain and Italy have already introduced independently that they are going to be implementing harder COVID measures for passengers from China.

France’s authorities is requiring damaging assessments, is urging French residents to keep away from nonessential journey to China and is reintroducing masks necessities on flights from China to France.

Spain’s authorities stated it could require all air passengers coming from China to have damaging assessments or proof of vaccination.

Italy was the primary EU member to require COVID assessments for airline passengers coming from China, however a number of others say such measures may not be the easiest way to guard native populations since variants now coming from China have already been round in Europe, usually for months.

The US introduced new COVID testing necessities final week for all travellers from China, becoming a member of some Asian nations that had imposed restrictions due to a surge of infections.

China’s state media slams Europe’s ‘political logic’

The World Well being Group on Friday urged China’s well being officers to recurrently share particular and real-time info on the COVID state of affairs, together with hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations.

It invited Chinese language scientists to current detailed information on viral sequencing at a gathering of a technical advisory group scheduled for Tuesday.

China reported three new COVID deaths for Monday, up from one on Sunday. Its official dying toll for the reason that pandemic started now stands at 5,253.

China has rejected criticism of its COVID information and stated that whereas new mutations could also be extra infectious, they’re much less dangerous.

“Based on the political logic of some individuals in Europe and the USA, whether or not China opens or doesn’t open is equally the improper factor to do,” state-run CCTV stated in a commentary late on Monday.

In an article on Tuesday, Folks’s Every day, the official newspaper of the Communist Social gathering, cited a number of Chinese language specialists as saying the sickness attributable to the virus was comparatively delicate for most individuals.

“Extreme and significant sicknesses account for 3% to 4% of contaminated sufferers at present admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing,” Tong Zhaohui, Vice President of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, informed the newspaper.

Regardless of the upbeat tone of China’s state media, others have been warning that the worst is but to come back.

“China is getting into probably the most harmful weeks of the pandemic,” warned analysts at Capital Economics.

“The authorities are making nearly no efforts now to sluggish the unfold of infections and, with the migration forward of Lunar New 12 months getting began, any elements of the nation not at present in a serious COVID wave will probably be quickly,” they stated.