China said on Friday all the Covid-19 data it has shared — including with the World Health Organization — has been transparent, despite its hospitals being overwhelmed and its official figures on infections and deaths being tiny compared with other countries.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier urged China to be more forthcoming on the pandemic and said it was "understandable" that some countries had introduced restrictions in response to its Covid-19 surge.

The United States on Wednesday joined several nations in imposing Covid tests on travellers from China after Beijing dropped foreign travel curbs despite a surge in cases.

However, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular media briefing on Friday: "Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has been sharing relevant information and data with the international community, including WHO, in an open and transparent manner.

"We shared the sequence of the new coronavirus at the first instance, and thus making important contributions to the development of relevant vaccines, drugs in other countries."

He added health experts in several countries have said week there was no need to impose entry restrictions on travellers from China. The EU's health agency said such measures were not warranted for the moment.

A national disease control body in China said there were about 5,500 new local cases and one death on Friday but, with the end of mass testing and the narrowing of criteria for what counts as a Covid fatality, those numbers are no longer believed to reflect reality.

Some experts estimate there may be as many as 9,000 daily deaths.

Health chief Jiao Yahui, from the National Health Commission (NHC), told reporters on Thursday China had always published data "on Covid-19 deaths and severe cases in the spirit of openness and transparency".

Jiao said China counts Covid-19 deaths only as cases of people who died of respiratory failure induced by the virus after testing positive with a nucleic acid test. She said other countries include all deaths within 28 days of positive tests.

"China has always been committed to the scientific criteria for judging Covid-19 deaths, from beginning to end, which are in line with the international criteria," Jiao said.

The NHC said last week it would no longer release an official daily Covid death toll.

Health risk analysis firm Airfinity said it currently estimates 9,000 daily deaths and 1.8 million infections per day in China, while it also expects 1.7 million fatalities across the country by the end of April 2023.

The Britain-based research firm said its model was based on data from China's regional provinces, before changes to reporting infections were implemented, combined with case growth rates from other former zero-Covid countries when they lifted restrictions.

China said this week it would end mandatory quarantine on arrival. It also announced this month it had abandoned a raft of tough measures to contain the coronavirus.

The world's most populous country will downgrade its management of Covid-19 from January 8, treating it as a Class B infection rather than a more serious Class A.

Liang Wannian, head of the NHC's Covid response expert panel, called the moves appropriate, scientific and law-based, Xinhua reported.

The state news agency reported Liang as saying the shift does not mean China is letting the virus go but that is instead directing resources to the most important areas of controlling the epidemic and treating infected people.

Italy finds no new Covid variants in China screening
Rome (AFP) Dec 29, 2022 –

Italy's screening of visitors from China has not detected any new coronavirus variants, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday, a day after mandatory testing was introduced.

Those who have tested positive so far are carriers of "Omicron variants already present in Italy", Meloni told her end-of-year press conference.

Italy made the tests on arrivals from China mandatory on Wednesday following an explosion in cases reported by Beijing.

Meloni said the screening was likely to be less effective than if it was being done on a European level, as only people arriving on direct flights from China were being tested, not those with stopovers.

Health Minister Orazio Schillaci would be pushing for the EU to roll out bloc-wide screening, she said.

Schillaci said testing arrivals was "essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population".

Italy was the first European country to be hit by coronavirus in early 2020, introducing first a nationwide lockdown and then compulsory vaccines for certain people.

Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy, which won September elections, had strongly criticised the restrictions.

Coronavirus infections have surged in China as it unwinds hardline controls that had torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests.

But a growing number of countries, including the United States, have imposed restrictions on visitors after China's decision to end mandatory quarantine on arrival, prompting many jubilant Chinese to make plans to travel abroad.

Chinese citizens have been largely confined to their country since Beijing pulled up the drawbridge in March 2020.

Spain to check airport arrivals from China for Covid: minister
Madrid, Spain (AFP) Dec 30, 2022 –

Passengers arriving at Spanish airports from China will be screened for Covid, Madrid's health minister said on Friday, following an explosion of cases in China.

Travellers from China will have to show "proof that they are negative… or a full vaccination list", health minister Carolina Darias told a press conference.

Italy on Wednesday made coronavirus tests for visitors from China mandatory.

Coronavirus infections have surged in China, overwhelming hospitals as it unwinds hardline controls that torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests.

A growing number of countries, including the United States, have imposed restrictions on all visitors from mainland China after Beijing decided to end mandatory quarantine on arrival, prompting many jubilant Chinese to make plans to travel abroad.

But the European Union's health agency said Thursday such restrictions weren't warranted in the bloc.

Chinese citizens have been largely confined to their country since Beijing pulled up the drawbridge in March 2020

S. Korea imposes restrictions on travellers from China over Covid surge
Seoul (AFP) Dec 30, 2022 –

South Korea took steps on Friday to limit travellers from mainland China, imposing visa restrictions, testing requirements and limiting flights as Beijing grapples with a surge in Covid-19 infections.

Seoul's decision comes after countries including Italy, Japan, India and the United States announced their own measures, which they say are a bid to avoid importing new coronavirus variants from China.

"Until the February next year, those entering (South Korea) from China will be required to undergo a Covid test before and after their arrivals," Seoul's Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday.

Travellers from China must provide a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours before boarding a plane to South Korea, or a negative antigen test within 24 hours before departure.

They will also be required to undergo a PCR test within the first day of their arrival, Han said.

Seoul is "inevitably strengthening some anti-epidemic measures to prevent the spread of the virus in our country due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in China," Han added.

China's hospital have been overwhelmed by an explosion in cases after Beijing began unwinding hardline controls that had torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests.

A growing number of countries have imposed restrictions on visitors from China after Beijing's decision to end mandatory quarantine on arrival prompted many to book travel plans.

Chinese citizens have been largely confined to their country since Beijing pulled up the drawbridge in March 2020.

South Korea will also restrict the issuing of short-term visas to Chinese nationals, excluding public officials, diplomats and those with crucial humanitarian and business purposes, until the end of January next year.

Seoul is scaling back the number of flights from China and all flights from the country will now have to land only at South Korea's main Incheon International Airport, Han added.

South Korea's southernmost Jeju Island, which has its own international airport and separate visa entry regime, was a popular tourist destination for Chinese arrivals before the pandemic.

A senior US health official this week said that Beijing has provided only limited information to global databases about the Covid variants circulating in China, and its testing and reporting on new cases had diminished.

EU health agency says China traveller screening 'unjustified' in bloc
Stockholm (AFP) Dec 29, 2022 –

The European Union's health agency said Thursday it believed the introduction of mandatory Covid screenings of travellers from China was "unjustified," despite a surge in cases in China.

The United States and several other countries have introduced mandatory Covid tests on travellers arriving from China.

But such measures are not necessary for the EU as a whole, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a statement.

Hospitals across China have been overwhelmed by an explosion of infections following Beijing's decision to lift strict rules that had largely kept the virus at bay but tanked the economy and sparked widespread protests.

China said this week it would end mandatory quarantine on arrival, prompting many Chinese to make plans to travel abroad.

However, the ECDC said it did not currently believe the surge in cases in China would impact the epidemiological situation in the EU "given higher population immunity in the EU/EEA, as well as the prior emergence and subsequent replacement of variants currently circulating in China".

Consequently, the agency considered "screenings and travel measures on travellers from China unjustified".

Potential imported infections were "rather low" compared to the numbers already circulating on a daily basis, which healthcare systems "are currently able to manage", the agency added.

The European Commission convened a meeting of the EU Health Security Committee Thursday to discuss possible measures.

"It is crucial that the EU acts united and in coordination regarding any possible public health measures in view of the situation in China," a commission spokesperson told AFP.

The commission would "continue to facilitate discussions between member states", the spokesperson added.