▲ Widespread use of face masks self-imposed by those awaiting postgraduate exams in Fuyang.Afp photo
afp
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday December 27, 2022, p. 9
Peking. China will repeal the mandatory quarantine for all those traveling to the Asian giant on January 8, the health authorities announced yesterday, a measure that adds to the lifting of most anti-Covid restrictions in early December.
Starting next month, a recent negative test will only be required for those who want to enter Chinese territory, the Health Commission, which has functions similar to those of a ministry, said in a statement.
China is the only great power that still requires a quarantine for those who travel to its territory, which negatively affects its tourism sector.
The Health Commission indicated that it now no longer considers covid-19 as pneumonia, but as a disease contagious
less dangerous.
Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday urged the authorities to take measures to effectively protect
the lives of the population in the face of the advance of covid infections, in their first public statements since the government relaxed restrictions this month.
We should launch a patriotic health campaign in a more refined way
to strengthen prevention and control
of the epidemic and effectively protect people’s life, safety and health
said the Chinese president.
Three years after the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the government removed most of the strict measures that underpinned its policy of zero covid
in a context of growing exasperation on the part of the population and given the strong impact that this policy was having on the economy of the Asian giant. But since then, China has faced an explosive increase in the number of people infected with the virus.
Saturated hospitals
Many hospitals are overcrowded and pharmacies are short of medicines. In addition, several crematoriums indicated that they are receiving a large number of bodies to be cremated.
The global balance of the pandemic is 657,593,463 confirmed infections and 6,679,959 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.
