China guaranteed today that it had “responsibly shared” data and information about the cases of covid-19 registered in the country, and again asked the international community to avoid “politicizing the pandemic”.
“China has shared information and data about Covid-19 responsibly. The international community must avoid politicizing the pandemic,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference.
Mi Feng, spokesperson for China’s National Health Commission, also said on Tuesday that “since the beginning of the pandemic three years ago, China has always maintained an open and transparent attitude and pragmatic exchanges”, and that ” cooperated with WHO [World Health Organization] and countries and regions around the world”.
“China held two technical exchange meetings with WHO, where there were in-depth discussions on the pandemic situation, medical treatment, vaccination and other issues. China is willing to maintain solidarity and cooperation with the international community, including the WHO, to help the world end the pandemic as soon as possible,” he added, quoted by local media.
The rapid spread of the virus in China, following the lifting of the ‘zero covid’ policy, has cast doubt on the reliability of official data on infections and deaths, which are clearly out of step with reality on the ground.
China announced at the end of December that it will reopen its borders on January 8, for the first time since March 2020, which has led several countries to decide in recent days to require travelers from the Asian country to present a negative test for covid-19 before boarding.
Beijing on Tuesday described restrictions that several countries have imposed on travelers from China as “disproportionate”.
Chinese experts quoted today by the local press also described as “waste of time and resources” the prevention measures that could be imposed today by the Integrated Mechanism for Political Response to Crisis Situations, of the European Union, due to the increase in cases in China.
“Requiring testing for all travelers is unnecessary. Many countries are fully vaccinated to prevent large-scale outbreaks. The most important and effective thing now would be to analyze the sequences of the virus,” said academic Chen Xi, from Yale University, quoted by the Global Times.
Other specialists, quoted by the newspaper, assured that “the most important thing is that disease control departments around the world continue to monitor new variants and keep the public informed”.
According to the Global Times, the Omicron variant that is now spreading across the Asian country “has already been found elsewhere” and “a new variant could emerge anywhere on the planet, which means that entry restrictions aimed at China are completely unnecessary ”.
