On n'a pas rendu le vaccin obligatoire mais presque avec le pass vaccinal

Les mesures de protection prises par les autres pays face à la flambée de covid en Chine sont « compréhensibles » au vu du manque d’informations fournies par Pékin, a estimé jeudi le chef de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

« En l’absence d’informations complètes venant de Chine, il est compréhensible que des pays prennent les mesures dont ils pensent qu’elles protégeront leurs populations », a-t-il déclaré sur Twitter.

@JChengWSJ
 
Passengers arriving at Spanish airports from China will be screened for Covid, Madrid's health minister said Friday, after an explosion of cases in China. Travellers from China will have to show "proof that they are negative…or a full vaccination list."

North Korea Temporarily Banning Travelers From China

Amid mounting international anxiety over the wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping China, North Korea has introduced a total ban on visitors from its close ally and neighbor.
 
“Chinese citizens are temporarily banned to enter,” reads an entry listed on China’s National Immigration Administration website. “All recent arrivals [from the People’s Republic of China], including North Korean citizens, must undergo 30 days of quarantine and observation.”

It’s unlikely that a dangerous new Covid-19 variant is spreading in China, said Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
There were likely billions of omicron infections worldwide this year, but no new Covid variant has emerged, he said.
“That’s why I would put the risk as quite low that there is a dangerous new variant in China,” Murray said.

@zhang_heqing
 
H.E. Mr. Qin Gang @AmbQinGang,  currently the Chinese ambassador to the United States, was appointed as China's new foreign minister on Friday, replacing Wang Yi.  
 
Qin is the 11th Chinese ambassador to the United States, assuming office in July 2021.

The UK and France said on Friday that passengers arriving from China would require a negative Covid-19 test, following a surge in infections in China.
 
From Jan 5 in Britain, Chinese travellers will need to show a negative Covid-19 test taken no more than two days prior to departure, the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement.
 
Separately, France said travellers from China would need to provide a negative Covid-19 test result less than 48 hours before departure, and that travellers on planes arriving from China would also have to wear masks.

Face au Covid-19, Pékin assure avoir obtenu “les meilleurs résultats du monde”

“Le Comité central du Parti, avec le camarade Xi Jinping comme noyau, attache une grande importance à la prévention et au contrôle de l’épidémie de Covid-19 […] En améliorant en permanence le niveau de prévention et de contrôle scientifique, en alliant le développement économique et la politique sanitaire, [nous avons] eu les meilleurs résultats au monde”, revendique le ministère chinois des Transports que cite le très nationaliste Huanqiu Shibao.

The World Health Organization has urged China to share specific and timely information on its coronavirus situation in the light of global concerns about a lack of transparency in the surging number of Covid-19 cases in the country.
 
At an online meeting with officials from China’s National Health Commission and National Disease Control and Prevention Administration on Friday, it asked the Chinese officials to regularly share “specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation”, including “more genetic sequencing data” and data on hospital admissions, deaths and vaccinations.
“WHO stressed the importance of monitoring and the timely publication of data to help China and the global community to formulate accurate risk assessments and to inform effective responses,” it said in a statement issued on Friday.
 
It also invited Chinese scientists “to present detailed data on viral sequencing” at a meeting of a technical advisory group on January 3.

Mainland China reported one new Covid-19 death on Friday and one on Thursday, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.

China censors COVID-related content online as New Year’s Eve prompts reflection

On Saturday, December 31, thousands of users on China’s Twitter-like Weibo criticized the removal of a viral video made by local outlet Netease News that collated real-life stories from 2022 that had captivated the Chinese public.
 
Many of the stories included in the video, which by Saturday could not be seen or shared on domestic social media platforms, highlighted the difficulties ordinary Chinese faced as a result of the strict zero-COVID policy.
 
Weibo and Netease did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
 
One Weibo hashtag about the video garnered almost four million hits before it disappeared from platforms around noon on Saturday. Social media users created new hashtags to keep the comments pouring in.
 
“What a perverse world, you can only sing the praises of the fake but you cannot show real life,” one user wrote, attaching a screenshot of a blank page that is displayed when searching for the hashtags.

Dernier en date, le Canada a annoncé samedi qu’il allait exiger un test. Les voyageurs devront présenter à l’embarquement en Chine un test négatif réalisé moins de 48 heures auparavant, a indiqué le gouvernement canadien dans un communiqué.

Selon Ottawa, la mesure est « une réponse à la posée de Covid-19 en République populaire de Chine et en raison du peu de données épidémiologiques et de séquençage du génome disponibles sur ces cas ». La mesure entrera en vigueur le 5 janvier et sera réévaluée au bout de trente jours.

China’s President Xi battles to save face as Covid U-turn weakens his grip on power

In his first public comments to the Chinese people on Covid since his government changed course three weeks ago, Xi used his speech on Saturday to claim the government and Chinese Communist party (CCP) had “put the people first and put life first all along”.

“Xi is virtually immune from public expressions of criticism within China,” he added. “But my Chinese friends are all shaking their heads in incredulity at the contrariness of Xi’s policies.”

Foreign analysts, scouring the internet and official pronouncements for clues, estimate there are already thousands of deaths a day, with more to come.
 
A first wave in urban areas is expected to peak in January, but a second, bigger wave will race through rural areas – where health systems are even weaker – in February and peak in early March, according to British health analytics firm Airfinity.

“People would like to believe the propaganda narrative, but when they see real things happening in their own circles, particularly relatives and family members, they will have less faith in the Chinese government,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the National University of Singapore.
 
“Because people can see family members suffering and passing away, government cannot use propaganda to divert attention.”

France urges EU peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID

France on Sunday urged European Union peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID after Paris decided to do so amid an outbreak sweeping the country.

From Sunday, France is requiring that travellers from China provide a negative COVID-19 test result less than 48 hours before departure and will randomly test those arriving.
 
"France will push for this methodology to be applied across the EU," Health Minister François Braun said as he and Transport Minister Clement Beaune checked on the new procedures at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport.

Travelers from China now face restrictions when entering more than a dozen countries as concern grows over its surge in COVID-19 cases, with Australia the latest to demand a negative test before arrival.

Australia’s health minister on Sunday cited Beijing’s “lack of comprehensive information” about Covid cases as the reasoning behind the travel requirement, which will take effect on January 5. The move will “safeguard Australia from the risk of potential new emerging variants,” he said.
 
In recent days, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have also imposed either a negative Covid test requirement or testing upon arrival for travellers from China.

Meanwhile, Morocco moved to ban all arrivals from China on Saturday, “to avoid a new wave of contaminations in Morocco and all its consequences”.

President Xi is guilty of "comprehensive incompetence", but the CCP's plan to blame protesters for the illness and deaths spreading across the country is already working,  a defence and national security expert claims.

Speaking to Sky News Australia, Michael Shoebridge from Strategic Analysis Australia said the current explosion of COVID in China – and the Chinese Communist Party’s complete failure to prepare for it – posed a serious threat to the global economy.
 
“Covid is exploding in China and it’s going to get even worse as their big domestic travel event – the lunar new year – happens late January and into February,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“A whole lot of Chinese companies are saying their workers are too sick to turn up, or they’re turning up sick and making other workers sick. And all this is right before the major travel event.
 
“Total control was disrupting the economy, and now no plan and no control is perhaps even more disruptive for China’s economy, and that’s causing ripples across the world.”

“He’s had three years to prepare China and its health system for opening up and living with covid and he’s comprehensively failed to plan and prepare. And that’s why we’re seeing the chaos and the high death rates now – particularly in the elderly Chinese population.

@ChinaDaily
China state-affiliated media
 
#FMsays Chinese authorities have released COVID information in a lawful, timely, open and transparent manner, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, adding that countries should avoid political manipulation and discrimination when taking COVID prevention measures.