The US may impose restrictions on travelers arriving from China, as officials fear the rampant spread of Covid in the East Asian country may have led to the emergence of a new, dangerous strain.
Arrivals may have to be screened upon entry into the US and face other hurdles. China has reportedly seen a surge in Covid cases in recent weeks after it abruptly ended its draconian “zero Covid” policy.
The exit restrictions for Chinese citizens have been lifted. Previously, residents had to prove they had an important reason, such as regular business relations, to leave the country. Now they can leave the country for tourist purposes. Between December 26 and December 28, some 75 flights from Beijing alone arrived in the United States.
Officials also fear that Chinese leaders are hiding Covid death tolls. Most importantly, the lack of available genomic data from China has increased fears of a new species. Some fear the situation could “turn the world off the pandemic again”.
This mirrors the situation in early 2020, when China was reluctant to update the world on the true extent of the virus outbreak. When the US stopped entry from China in early February, thousands of potentially infected passengers had already reached the states.
Italy has implemented a similar policy as many travelers head west from Beijing after strict Covid guidelines were lifted. The change came after up to half of passengers tested positive on two flights from China to Milan. Nearby Taiwan and Malaysia did the same.
Pictured: Patients are treated at Tianjin Nankai Hospital on December 28 after the Chinese government announced it was finally easing restrictions
Patients were seen on stretchers in the waiting room at Tianjin First Center Hospital as medics dealt with a new wave of cases
US officials said: “There is growing concern in the international community about China’s ongoing Covid outbreaks and the lack of transparent data, including viral genome sequence data, reported by [China].
“Without this data, it becomes increasingly difficult for public health authorities to identify potential new variants and act quickly to contain the spread.”
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Officials from Taiwan and Japan will begin requiring a negative Covid test for visitors from mainland China.
Meanwhile, Malaysia also “announced new tracking and surveillance measures”, according to the US.
China will lift quarantine requirements for international arrivals starting Jan. 8, a key step toward reopening the borders that have isolated it from the rest of the world.
It opened the rest of the world to travelers from China on Monday.
The country had a strict “zero Covid” policy dating back to the early days of the pandemic.
The strategy imposed sweeping lockdowns across the country, bringing the economy and society to a standstill.
The policy also limited exposure to the virus, which makes a person’s immune system less susceptible to it over time.
Overall immunity in the US is relatively high as the population has been repeatedly exposed to the virus in recent years.
Combined with the immune boosting effect of vaccines, the population is now largely protected.
Frustration with the Chinese government boiled over when protesters took to the streets en masse earlier this year, demanding an end to its rigid zero-Covid policy.
Covid cases exploded immediately after Chinese officials changed their stance.
But it remains unclear to what extent the number of cases and deaths has increased.
The Chinese government has not released the required data, and the relatively low death toll — fewer than 17,000 since the pandemic began — is considered an underestimate.
China’s National Health Commission reported 40,052 new cases nationwide on Monday, a record for the fifth straight day.
Officials from the Asian country claim the situation is under control.
“At the moment, the development of the epidemic situation in China is generally predictable and under control,” Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday.
“Hyping, slander and political manipulation with ulterior motives fail the test of fact,” Wang added, calling Western media coverage of China’s Covid wave “completely biased.”
But hospitals and crematoria across China continue to be overwhelmed by an influx of mostly elderly people sickened by the virus.
Dozens of mostly elderly Covid patients were seen on stretchers in crowded hospital emergency rooms in Tianjin, 140 kilometers southwest of the capital Beijing, on Wednesday.
Other countries have expressed concern about the potential for new variants to emerge as China battles the world’s biggest wave of infections.
DR Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline last month: ‘Every single Covid infection gives the virus a chance to change its properties.
“The idea that this will only lead to less lethality is simply not true; Effective population-wide immunity appears to have had a much greater protective effect, but compared to the vaccines used here, China’s vaccine appears to be less effective, which may contribute to their problem.
“Large-scale, massive infections, even if they do not cause severe disease, are a cauldron of virus evolution that can change and potentially make them more lethal or less vulnerable to existing immunity.”
Covid has largely declined as an everyday threat to Americans, even during these winter months that have seen devastating spikes in the past two years.
America registers 67,215 confirmed infections every day, a number that has remained the same for the past two weeks.
Every day there are just under 400 deaths – 388 – due to Covid, down 18 percent over the past 14 days.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
