China criticises entry restrictions targeting Chinese travellers alone
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Beijing: China has slammed the Covid restrictions being imposed on Chinese travellers in around a dozen nations including the US, Canada, France, India, and Japan. These have demanded that travellers from China show a negative Covid test before arrival.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said some nations have taken entry restrictions targeting only Chinese travellers and warned that Beijing can take "countermeasures" in response based on the principle of reciprocity. She added that the nature of restrictions lack scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable, reported AFP.
China has been seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases since abruptly lifting the zero covid policy last month. Hospitals and crematoriums are overwhelmed as they received a little warning regarding the changes. Beijing said travellers no longer need to quarantine and people rushed to trips abroad.
Many nations and the UN have criticised China over its lack of transparency around data related to the number of infections as well as the risk of new variants. Beijing has also dramatically narrowed the criteria for Covid deaths and has officially recorded only 22 of them since December.
However, unofficial reports from hospitals and crematoriums hint at a much higher infection rate.
Beijing has also admitted that the scale of the outbreak has become impossible to track because the rule of mandatory mass testing was lifted last month. The National Health Commission no longer publishes daily nationwide infection and death statistics. The CDC is now instructed to publish figures once a month. Officials in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang believe one million residents were infected every day last week. The cities of Quzhou and Zhoushan believe at least 30% of their population are infected.
This is in stark contrast with the data the government is projecting. The state media also claimed that the current Covid infection is "relatively mild for the vast majority of people."