Changes after the Beijing Clean Cleansing Plan (Creaming the Omicron Disease) Revisited: How China’s health authorities improved its zero-Covid policy

On Wednesday, China’s health authorities overhauled the zero-Covid policy with a 10-point national plan that kept some restrictions, but largely scrapped health code tracking for most public places, rolled back mass testing, allowed many positive cases to quarantine at home and imposed limits on lockdowns of areas deemed “high risk.”

Some people were concerned that the new rules would affect their lives, while others said they were relieved and happy by the loosened measures.

A manager at a tech company in Beijing said the world changed overnight. We are getting back to being normal. This is important to me because if I don’t get back to a normal life, I might lose my mind.”

China lifted most of its testing andQuarantine policies on December 1st as the Omicron variant leapfrogged through its COVID controls.

What have we learnt about Omicron in China? Ding: What’s going on, what is going on and how to respond to it

How can it change so quickly? Ding asked. I think that we are like fools, because of it. It’s all up to them. It was said that it was good, which made me feel good right now. I have no choice but to enjoy it. I can’t do anything but follow the arrangement.

David Wang, 33, a freelancer in Shanghai, said although the changes were welcome, they had also sparked a feeling of disbelief in the city, which underwent a chaotic, more than two-month-long, citywide lockdown earlier this year.

“Of course I was very happy about these new changes – (but) most of my friends are showing typical signs of PTSD, they just can’t believe it’s happening,” he said.

Top health officials in Beijing on Wednesday said the changes to the rules were based on scientific evidence, including the spread of the comparatively milder Omicron variant, the vaccination rate, and China’s level of experience in responding to the virus.

The changes are a reversal of the government’s long-held stance that all infections should be stamped out. While health authorities made slight policy revisions and cautioned officials against overreach last month, the central government up until last week had shown no signs of preparing for an imminent shift in its national strategy.

The government and state media had long emphasized the dangers of the virus and its potential long-term effects – and used this to justify the maintenance of restrictive policies.

Even a small number of serious cases could have a significant impact on the health system in a country of more than one billion people.

China is experiencing a surge in new cases since restrictions were eased. In China’s eastern Zhejiang province alone, the provincial government said it was experiencing about 1 million new daily cases. The Financial Times reported that top Chinese health officials said as many as 250 million people may have been affected in the first 20 days of December.

There were numerous reports of panic buying of fever medications on Thursday morning in China, after the topics and hashtags related to what to do if infections by Omicron trended high on Weibo.

There arerupt changes in public health messaging that are not unique to China. At various stages in the pandemic, many countries have changed course around what healthcare messages to send. Early on, there was a lot of back-and-forth about whether masks and facial coverings would lessen the spread of the virus, including in the United States.

Bob Li, a graduate student in Beijing, who was positive for the virus on Friday, said that he wasn’t afraid of it, but his mother, who is in the countryside, was very concerned about him. “She finds the virus a very, very scary thing,” Li said.

Meanwhile, his mother was now buying high-grade N95 masks and preparing for a “nuclear winter” until a potential initial wave of cases passed, Wang said.

The Beijing Health Code is No More Zero COVID and it is Rather the Stay at Home: Implications for Disease Prevention and Health Care in China

Already there has been some contradiction in how the guidelines are implemented as local authorities adjust – and many are watching to see the impact in their cities.

The Beijing authorities said on Wednesday that dining in restaurants or entering some entertainment venues without a positive Covid-19 test is against the national guidelines.

When her health code changed to yellow, she would usually be prevented from entering most public places, until she took another test that came back with a negative result. Now, with the new rules she knew she could largely go out freely, but instead she stayed at home to “wait and see.”

The move follows the government’s snap announcement last week that it was ending many of the most draconian measures. That follows three years of lockdowns, travel restrictions and quarantines on those moving between provinces and cities, mandated testing, and requirements that a clean bill of health be shown to access public areas.

The government has not stated what the goal of the policy is, which could cause confusion. “These measures will likely lead to a messy and hasty transition process where local governments ditch all the zero-COVID measures without investing seriously in preparing for the transition,” says Huang who would have liked to have saw the reopening happen in phases.

Some aspects of the new rules, including when and where to test people during an outbreak, are open to interpretation by local governments.

Furthermore, the guidelines do not lift testing and quarantine requirements for international travellers, which “doesn’t have a rationale if the objective is no longer zero COVID”, says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

Many people live in high-rise buildings and it will be difficult to limit transmission. Allowing people to stay at home will cause the spread of the disease, says a researcher. Hospitals could be overwhelmed by this.

Researchers do not think that the timing of the reopening is ideal. Winter is peak influenza season so hospitals will already be experiencing a rise in the number of patients. During this year’s Lunar New Year and the spring festival, many people will travel across the country, further increasing the spread of disease, according to a Yale University economist.

There isn’t a strong system for primary medical care in China, which causes people to go to hospital for mild illnesses.

JoyZhang, a sociologist at the University of Kent in Britain said that the easing of the restrictions might not help businesses to recover from lengthy lock ups or remove the social stigma associated with COVID-19. I am afraid that health and socio-economic risk will be passed on to individuals.

Cowling says that urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during surge, such as through mask mandates, work from home policies and temporary school closings. It is not clear how officials will be able to decide if a city has passed an epidemic or not, given the recent reduction in testing.

The Rise of Covid Vaccination in China: A View from the Daily Evening News and the Evening In China Newsletter (with the original version published in China)

Many older people don’t trust medical professionals and there is a serious vaccine hesitancy. Many older people live in rural and remote areas so it will take time to vaccinate them, says Xi Chen.

The guidelines propose setting up mobile clinics, and training medical staff to address people’s safety concerns to boost vaccination. But they stop short of issuing vaccine mandates or introducing strong incentives for local governments to increase their vaccination rates, says Huang. Whether the inevitable rise in infections will lead to a spike in deaths remains to be seen. “The full impact remains to be unfolded,” he says.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

The health tracking function on the itinerary card would be removed the following day, as part of the changes.

The system, which is separate from the health code scanning system still required in a reduced number of places in China, had used people’s cell phone data to track their travel history in the past 14 days in an attempt to identify those who have been to a city with zone designated “high-risk” by authorities.

But as the scrapping of parts of the zero-Covid infrastructure come apace, there are questions about how the country’s health system will handle a mass outbreak.

The China Youth Daily reported on hours-long lines at a Beijing clinic on Friday, and said that people should not go to hospitals unless it’s necessary.

The hospital official appealed to residents with mild or no symptoms of Covid-positive disease who call the emergency services line to refrain from doing so, because of a surge in emergency calls and a need for more resources.

According to official media, the daily number of emergency calls has gone up from 5000 to over 30,000 in recent days, with Chen Zhi, the chief physician of the Beijing Emergency Center.

Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in China, says a key public voice in the early days of the pandemic and on the need for booster shots

In an interview published by state media, a top Covid-19 expert said that the drug was spreading rapidly in China.

It will be hard to completely cut off the transmission chain even with strong prevention and control, said a key public voice in the early days of the pandemic.

The rapid rollback of testing nationwide and the shift by many people to use antigen tests at home has also made it difficult to gauge the extent of the spread, with official data now appearing meaningless.

According to the notice on the website, the commission stopped publishing daily figures on numbers of COVID-19 cases that did not show any symptoms due to it being difficult to correctly estimate the number of new infections. The only numbers they’re reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.

One note on the side of a Beijing apartment building states that the number of employees can’t come to work due to the severe epidemic situation in recent days.

Outside experts have warned that China may be underprepared to handle the expected surge of cases, after the surprise move to lift its measures in the wake of nationwide protests against the policy, growing case numbers and rising economic costs.

Zhong, in the state media interview, said the government’s top priority now should be booster shots, particularly for the elderly and others most at risk, especially with China’s Lunar New Year coming up next month – a peak travel time where urban residents visit elderly relatives and return to rural hometowns.

Last Thursday, China’s national health commission said it was accelerating the expansion of fever treatment clinics – where patients can get quick medical consultations and supplies from a pharmacy — to cover 90% of rural areas to prepare them for the anticipated increase.

China’s market watchdog said on Friday there was a “temporary shortage” of some hot-selling drugs, while major online retailerJD.com last week said it was taking steps to ensure stable supplies following sales for certain medications surged 18 times that

A doctor in Beijing says that people who test negative for Covid-19 but have no symptoms need not take drugs to recover. This was stated in an interview with a state media website over the weekend.

People with no symptoms, do not need medication at all. It’s possible to rest, maintain a good mood, and have a physical condition. ,” Li Tongzeng, chief infectious disease physician at Beijing You An Hospital, said in an interview linked to a hashtag viewed more than 370 million times since Friday.

China will drop a “zero-COVID” travel tracing requirement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

BEIJING (AP) — China will drop a travel tracing requirement as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-COVID” policies that have elicited widespread dissatisfaction.

In Beijing and a number of other cities last month, protests over the restrictions grew into demands for the ruling Communist Party to step down because of public opinion that was not seen in decades.

Concerns about a new wave of infections, potentially overwhelming health care resources in some areas, have arisen because of the relaxation.

The government reversed course because it decided to allow those with mild symptoms to recuperate at home rather than in field hospitals that are notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene.

Reports on the Chinese internet, which is tightly controlled by the government, sought to reassure a nervous public, stating that restrictions would continue to be dropped and travel, indoor dining and other economic activity would soon be returning to pre-pandemic conditions.

The Omicron variant is a light version of the common cold, which has contributed to vaccine hesitancy in China.

Protests erupted Nov. 25 after 10 people died in a fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi. Many believed COVID-19 restrictions may have impeded rescue efforts. Authorities denied the claims spread online, but demonstrators gave voice to longstanding frustration in cities such as Shanghai that have endured severe lockdowns.

Xi’s government promised to reduce the cost and disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. Forecasters say the economy probably is shrinking in the current quarter. In November, imports plummeted by 10.9%, a sign of weak demand.

Experts warn that there is a chance of the ruling party changing course if there is a large-scale outbreak.

Last week’s announcement allowed considerable room for local governments to assign their own regulations. Most restaurants in Beijing, for example, still require a negative test result obtained over the previous 48 hours and rules are even stricter for government offices.

China has stopped publishing daily COVID-19 data, adding to concerns that the country’s leadership may be concealing negative information about the pandemic following the easing of restrictions.

Beijing’s streets have grown eerily quiet, with lines forming outside fever clinics — the number of which has been increased from 94 to 303 — and at pharmacies, where cold and flu medications are harder to find.

Despite a push to boost vaccinations among the elderly, two centers set up in Beijing to administer shots were empty Tuesday except for medical personnel. There wasn’t evidence of a big increase in the number of patients.

Twelve people were waiting for their nucleic acid test results at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital’s fever clinic. Nurses in full-body white protective gear checked in patients one by one.

A group of about a dozen people wait in line of blue tents at the hospital, which is situated a few kilometers south. As the person in the queue was waiting, she was sprayed with a bottle of disinfectant by the person in the queue.

Across the street at Gaoji Baikang Pharmacy, around a dozen people waited in line for cough medication and Chinese herbal remedies. A sign at the front told waiting customers: “Avoid panic and hoarding, we are doing all we can to stock up to fulfill your medicinal needs.” The man coming out told the customers that they could only buy two packages of the Chinese herbal remedy and not buy more than that.

The State Department of Public Health: A Study of COVID-19 in Beijing after the Decay of the U.S. Consulates

The communist party’s attempt to minimize the number of deaths is being questioned as China’s government-supplied figures have not been independently verified.

Since Tuesday, the U.S. consulates in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang and the central city of Wuhan have been offering only emergency services “in response to increased number of COVID-19 cases,” the State Department said.

In the capital, restaurants were mostly closed or empty. There is a lot of difficulty in finding enough staff who haven’t gotten sick. Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s most popular shopping districts, was deserted despite having its anti-COVID-19 fences taken down in recent days.

Hospitals have been struggling to stay staffed, and there has been a growing shortage of China’s ubiquitous motorized tricycle delivery drivers.

Students will be allowed to finish the semester at home in order to reduce the potential for a bigger COvid-19 outbreak during the January New Year travel rush.

The move follows the government’s dramatic announcement last week that it was ending many of the strictest measures, following three years during which it enforced some of the world’s tightest virus restrictions.

If he was shifting focus to less strict protocols, a prominent public health expert would make false statements about the virus. He went from touting China’s mass quarantine strategy in May to telling a state media outlet that he hasn’t seen cases of COVID-19 causing obvious long-term organ damage.

Zhong also said that 78% of patients infected with the Omnicron variant won’t be reinfected for quite a long time. Protection against reinfection may decline over time, and most people will be re-instated every two to three years.

When China reverses its zero COVID policy, what do we know? How much Chinese medicine has changed in the past, and how to make it better

The about-face didn’t go off without notice on the Chinese internet. Posts juxtaposing expert TV appearances before and after policy change have gotten over 100,000 views.

An apology was received by a member of the disease outbreak containment expert commission who insisted that Shanghai wouldn’t shut down.

What preventative measures and treatments are available is one topic of discussion that has moved to the aftermath of the policy change.

Recent days have seen a resurgence of untested remedies. An internal medicine doctor who’s a member of China’s prestigious Academy of Engineering recommended the unproven method of rinsing out your mouth using iced salt water daily. Commenters online were baffled. Two years ago, did not salt water rinse have to be discredited? Does Iced version make a difference? one wrote in a blog post.

A local government in southwest China suggested making tea out of orange peels and monk fruit – both common ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine – to prevent infection. According to Dr. Zhong, there is no medication that is effective at preventing a COVID infection.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1143413739/confusion-and-falsehoods-spread-as-china-reverses-its-zero-covid-policy

The Global Times and the Diaspora Reveal the Cosmic Viral Disease (COVID-19): Getting the Public’s Attention in 2020

The chaos and uncertainty right now reminds Chen Wenhong, an associate professor of media studies and sociology at University of Texas, of the atmosphere in early 2020 when COVID was first spreading. “It’s kind of flying in the dark.”

For most people in China, state media and health professionals are the most-trusted sources for information about COVID-19, according to surveys conducted in 2020. And with access to the global internet cut off for most, there are few alternatives to state media and its constellation of aligned social media accounts, says Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The Global Times, controlled by the Communist Party, cited a story from the British tabloid Daily Mail that suggested without evidence that vaccine maker Moderna manufactured the virus. The Global Times used the coverage to attack the other theories about the origin of the virus, including the one that said it leaked from a government research lab. Smaller social media accounts made videos of the report and put “British Media” in the headlines.

In most cases, Chen says it will not be that serious, and that the Chinese diaspora has played a useful role in this regard.

She points out that while researchers and journalists often pay attention to social media discourse, many rural, often elderly residents rely on television and family members in larger cities to stay informed. Many are vulnerable to the disease, live in places where healthcare resources are scarce, and aren’t adept at finding information on social media.

To get medically sound public health messages to the most vulnerable people, the Chinese government needs to act fast.

Public health authorities do not base their messages for the public on science only, as was reported by NPR.

Chen says that scientists have some soul searching to do in the next couple of years. “If we know that politics is going to play a role in public health and also in science, how do we conduct ourselves? What [are] our ethics?”

“I think the village doctors and the hospital can’t deal with the increased number of patients,” says Huan Wang, a researcher at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions. “I think the rural villagers are just left on their own in a dark COVID winter.”

As the lunar new year approaches, health officials are worried the celebrations could turn into superspreader events and catch rural systems off guard, in a country where vaccine resistance is still high among the older population.

Ali Mokdad says it’s important to communicate that it’s coming in China because people are going to go to the rural areas in the new year.

In its latest briefing, IHME forecasts up to 1 million deaths in 2023 if China does not maintain social distancing policies — a prediction echoed by another model released by researchers at University of Hong Kong last week.

“As the experts say, just set off some fireworks, have a good party and scare away the virus,” says Sun Caiyun, an ebullient restaurant owner in Beijing who says she is intent on heading back to her home village in the northern Shandong province – COVID or not. “Of course I am planning on returning home, because Beijing bans firecrackers!”

Li Qian, a college student who lives in China’s southernJiangsu province, says people from the cities have been coming over to buy all of our medicines or they’ll order online and have our pharmacies mail it to them. The nearest hospital is two hours away, so she worries about her asthmatic grandparents the most.

China has very little prepared to treat the infections that came about because of the focus on containing the virus for three years. The Council on Foreign Relations’ senior fellow following public health says that vaccine of the elderly and stockpiling of antivirals were all ‘turned into a back- burner issue’.

The number of deaths they’re willing to show is almost ridiculous according to the founder of the Center for Disease Control’s office in China.

The hospitals thatNPR visited in Beijing this week were busy but orderly with a few elderly patients lying in gurneys in the lobby because beds had run out.

So far, the health care system has held up in large cities – in part because many migrant workers have only rural health insurance that cannot be used in urban hospitals.

“You just have to suck it for a few days,” says Zhang Xiaohu, a delivery worker who contracted COVID in early December. He worked through his symptoms because he does not have paid sick leave and can’t afford to go to a Beijing hospital. “Being a delivery guy means you have to be the kind of person who dares to risk their lives.”

Cases have skyrocketed since China abandoned zero-Covid , with empty streets and packed hospital wards. When CNN visited a Beijing crematorium, there were cars lined up to enter, with family members who had been waiting for more than a day waiting to take their last breaths.

A man in the line said that his grandfather was positive for COVID and spent days trying to find a hospital that could take him.

There is no free beds in Beijing at this time, said the grandson. He didn’t want to be identified because the topic of COVID deaths is sensitive in China. His grandfather died Sunday, two hours after checking into the hospital, though China reported no deaths from COVID that weekend.

The figures were presented during an internal meeting of China’s National Health Commission on Wednesday, according to both outlets, which cited sources familiar with the matter. According to the summary of Wednesday’s meeting, the treatment of patients affected by the new outbreak was discussed.

The NHC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, even after a copy of what was purportedly the meetings notes was posted on Chinese social media and shown by CNN.

Two people familiar with the matter told The Financial Times that the figures were presented to the officials by the deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

China’s Covid pandemic has finally closed, but neither does everyone know when she will go home – a bittersweet victory for one of the hardest decisions of her life

The figures are in stark contrast to the public data of the NHC, which reported just 62,592 symptomatic Covid cases in the first twenty days of December.

The latest NHC guidelines only state that death due to pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting the virus are considered Covid deaths.

According to reports, the minutes of the meeting did not mention the discussion about how many people may have died in China.

Despite the surge in cases, China has suspended most public testing booths, meaning there is no accurate public measure of the scale of infections across the country.

For many Chinese nationals abroad, who have been unable to return or unwilling to endure the lengthy quarantine, the news meant they could finally go home — a bittersweet victory after much sacrifice.

The border remains largely closed to foreigners, apart from a limited number of business or family visits — though the government signaled Monday this could loosen, too.

“Finally, everybody can (live) their normal life,” said one Chinese national living in New York, who hasn’t been home for four years. She called the separation “very painful,” saying several of her family members and the beloved pet dog she grew up with had died during that time.

Her family “missed (my graduation). They missed so many things,” she said. I missed a lot of things for my family. All my friends, they got married during the pandemic. Some had babies. I missed a lot of the important points in their lives.

Since living in South Korea, May Ma hasn’t been able to go home for nearly three years. The worst thing about the quarantine requirements had been worrying about her grandparents’ health, and not knowing if she’d be able to return in time to say goodbye if anything were to happen, she said.

She said the scariest thing was not knowing when she can go back. “I definitely feel very happy, I can finally see the end.”

China’s largest airport: The first three years of tourism in China: outbound flights, hotels and flights increase by three years since the January 3 holiday season

The people in China are anticipating outbound travel. Most people who have not left the country for a few years are flooding booking sites to plan vacations.

Online searches for flights and hotels in China spiked to a three-year peak, according to company data. Within an hour of the announcement, searches for popular destinations increased tenfold, with a large amount of people searching for outbound group tours during the holiday season in late January.

Macao, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom were among the website’s top 10 destinations with the fastest growth in search volume since the announcement.

A Chinese national in New York said, “I really feel like it’s a mess right now.” Everybody is sick. So, at least I think right now, it’s not the best time to visit my family. Maybe two or three months later.

Some overseas destinations are also on guard. Milan’s Malpensa airport, one of the country’s largest airports, has been told to conduct tests on all arrivals from China from now until the end of January.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/china-border-quarantine-travel-reax-intl-hnk/index.html

Covid-19 in China: a warning for the recovery of global economic activity from the upturn of economic downturn and the challenges of tackling the epidemic

“It doesn’t matter if I can get back in time for Spring Festival,” said Ma in South Korea, referring to Lunar New Year. “I can bear waiting for a little while longer, there is hope after all.”

BEIJING — Companies welcomed China’s decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity while Japan on Tuesday announced restrictions on visitors from the country as infections surge.

The British Chamber of Commerce hoped that China will allow “resumption of crucial people to people exchanges” if they restart normal business visas. It says that it will help restore optimism and rein in China as a priority investment destination.

Meanwhile, Japan said all visitors from China will undergo virus tests starting Friday as a “temporary emergency measure” in response to the country’s flood of infections.

Wang Wenbin said the Chinese government followed the principle of science-based and targeted measures. He called for a “science-based response and coordinated approach” to keep travel safe and promote a steady and sound recovery of the world economy.

The ruling party started to join the US and other governments that are treating infections rather than quarking people in cities.

The changes were announced by the ruling party as a way to reduce disruptions caused by the economic downturn. Following the protests in November, more changes were announced.

Lu said that the government should have done the job in a more methodical way. The initial shock of the disease has still been severe despite the fact that the death rate is not as serious.

COVID-19 was stripped of its status as a Class A infectious disease and replaced by a Class B disease according to the National Health Commission. It said that authorities would no longer keep track of close contacts and the areas they were in would be declared high or low risk of infections.

The requirements are not a travel ban, but history told me to be prepared for panic. I didn’t need to wait long before the Biden administration swiftly rolled out a new policy requiring travelers from China to present negative Covid-19 tests before entering the United States.

The US is following the science and advice of public health experts, and is looking at taking similar measures to protect the American people.

The global industrial chain supply chain needs to be stable, the safe movement of people between countries needs to be ensured and the growth of the world economy needs to be resumed, Wang said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the measure Wednesday to go into effect on Jan. 5 for all passengers over the age of 2. If you’re going on a direct flight or through another country, you must have a positive test within two days of departure.

“Reduced testing and case reporting in (China) and minimal sharing of viral genomic sequence data could delay the identification of new variants of concern if they arise,” the CDC said in a news release.

BEIJING — Australia and Canada have joined a growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to take a COVID-19 test prior to boarding their flight, as China battles a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic.

“These three transit hubs cover the overwhelming majority of passengers with travel originating in the PRC and the Special Administrative Regions,” the CDC said.

The U.S. is expanding its voluntary genomic testing program, which gathers anonymous facial swabs from arriving international travelers to detect new and rare COVID variants. The CDC is adding two more airports to its program, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Los Angeles International.

“During the initial weeks of the Omicron surge, TGS detected two Omicron subvariants, BA.2 and BA.3, and reported them to the global database weeks before they were reported elsewhere, demonstrating that the program is able to detect variants early,” the CDC said.

The Covid Deaths of a Child: Implications for the WHO, the WHO and the FOCUS Organisation of World Health Organization

Hong Kong is set to resume some border checkpoint operations early next year, with the goal of having travelers travel to China free of visas in the first half of 2019.

“There are still some worries, more or less,” said Wu Yanxia, a 51-year-old Beijing resident who works at a logistic company. Domestic travel is something I hope will be normal next year.

“We have experienced a very uneven year, particularly unforgettable, with many things out of our imagination,” said Li Feng, a teacher in Beijing, adding that 2022 was a difficult year for both the people and the government.

The World Health Organization has accused China of “under-representing” the severity of its Covid outbreak and criticized its “narrow” definition of what constitutes a Covid death, as top global health officials urge Beijing to share more data about the explosive spread.

“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing in Geneva Wednesday.

The Swedish presidency of the bloc said on Wednesday that the European Union encouraged member states to require negative Covid tests for passengers from China who wish to travel to the EU.

The WHO’s Tedros said Wednesday it was “understandable” that some countries were taking these steps, “with circulation in China so high and comprehensive data not forthcoming.”

The need for more forthcoming genomic data continues to be stressed by the group. The latest situation adds to longstanding challenges for the UN body, which faced criticism at the start of the pandemic that it did not push China hard enough for data, amid concerns Beijing was obscuring critical information. Beijing has defended transparency many times.

She said that there should be more information about the entire country, so that deeper analyses can be done. The data of different HINs can be accessed through the global initiative.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Efficacy in Detecting Covid-19 Infections: A Call for More Data Uploading by China

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has “done some very preliminary work” to do wastewater testing with airlines, Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said Wednesday. Public health officials are worried about a Covid-19 surge in China which may cause them to intensify monitoring for coronaviruses.

“I think they’ve done some early piloting of one flight, for example, testing the blue water in one flight,” she said, adding that such a program could be expanded to test collections of wastewater from multiple flights or a single airport.

The CDC has been in touch with United Airlines, and they are evaluating participation in the program. CNN has requested comment from the CDC and from other US carriers that service China.

Despite its low official figures, China insists that the data of its Covid-19 vaccine is transparent, especially in light of the rapid spread of the disease and low booster rates among the elderly. The World Health Organization and others have asked China to share more data. In a call with his Chinese counterpart last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged China to upload more health data, a US official told CNN.

A second US official said that the Biden administration was not planning on taking any punishment against China if it did not release more Covid-19 data.