China’s state media on Tuesday downplayed the severity of the wave of Covid-19 hitting the country, and its scientists are expected to provide information to the World Health Organization on the evolution of the virus later that day.
China’s abrupt u-turn in covid checks on Dec. 7, as well as the accuracy of its case and mortality data, have come under increasing scrutiny at home and abroad and have led to some countries to impose travel restrictions.
The policy shift followed protests over the “covid zero” approach championed by President Xi Jinping, marking the strongest show of public defiance in his decade-long presidency and coinciding with China’s slowest growth in nearly half a century. .
As the virus spreads unchecked, funeral homes report increased 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 on Monday, up from one on Sunday. Its official death toll since the pandemic began now stands at 5,253.
In an article on Tuesday, village newspaperthe official newspaper of the Communist Party, quoted several Chinese experts as saying that the illness caused by the virus was relatively mild for most people.
“Serious and critical illnesses account for 3 to 4 percent of currently infected patients admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing,” Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told the newspaper.
Kang Yan, director of Sichuan University West China Tianfu Hospital, 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 percent of symptomatic infections.
More than 80 percent of people living in the southwestern province of Sichuan have been infected, local health authorities said.
The World Health Organization on Friday urged Chinese health officials to regularly share specific and real-time information on the Covid situation.
The agency invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a technical advisory group meeting scheduled for Tuesday. It has also called on 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 China outbreak, the Swedish EU presidency said on Monday.
The United States, France, Australia, India and others will require mandatory Covid tests for travelers from China, while Belgium said it will test wastewater from China’s planes for new Covid variants.
China has pushed back against criticism of its covid data, saying any new mutations may be more infectious but less harmful.
“According to the political logic of some people in Europe and the United States, whether China opens or not opens is equally wrong,” state CCTV said in a commentary late Monday.
economic concerns
As Chinese workers and shoppers fall ill, concerns are mounting about growth prospects in the world’s second-largest economy, weighing on Asian stocks.
Data on Tuesday showed China’s factory activity contracted at a steeper pace in December as the wave of Covid-19 disrupted production and hurt demand.
December shipments from Foxconn’s Zhengzhou iPhone plant, disrupted late last year by a Covid outbreak that led to worker walkouts and unrest, accounted for 90 percent of the company’s initial plans, a source said. with direct knowledge of the matter.
A “wildfire” of infections in China in the coming months is likely to hurt its economy this year and drag down global growth, International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said.
“China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,” Capital Economics analysts warned.
“Authorities are making almost no effort now to curb the spread of infections, and with migration starting before Lunar New Year, any part of the country that is not currently in a major Covid wave will be soon.”
The mobility data suggested that economic activity was depressed across the country and would likely remain so until the wave of infections began to subside, they added.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the domestic tourism market recorded 52.71 million trips during the New Year holiday, flat on-year and just 43 percent from 2019 levels, before the pandemic.
The revenue generated exceeded 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), up 4% from the previous year, but only about 35% of the revenue generated in 2019, the ministry said.
Expectations are highest for China’s biggest holiday, Lunar New Year, later this month, when some experts expect daily Covid cases have already peaked in many parts of the country. Some hotels in the southern tourist hub of Sanya are fully booked for the period, Chinese media reported.
