Explainer: Is China sharing enough COVID-19 information? - CNA

TAIPEI: As COVID-19 rips through China, other countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) are calling on its government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak. Some even say many of the numbers it's reporting are meaningless.

Without basic data like the number of deaths, infections and severe cases, governments elsewhere have instituted virus testing requirements for travellers from China.

Beijing has said the measures aren't science-based and threatened countermeasures.

Of greatest concern is whether new variants will emerge from the mass infection unfolding in China and spread to other countries.

The Delta and Omicron variants developed in places that also had large outbreaks, which can be a breeding ground for new variants.

Here's a look at what's going on with China's COVID-19 data:

WHAT IS CHINA SHARING AND NOT SHARING?

Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.

China is most certainly doing their own sampling studies but just not sharing them, said Ray Yip, who founded the US Centers for Disease Control office in China.

The nationwide tally for Thursday (Jan 5) was 9,548 new cases and five deaths, but some local governments are releasing much higher estimates just for their jurisdictions.

Zhejiang, a province on the east coast, said on Jan 3 it was seeing about one million new cases a day.

If a variant emerges in an outbreak, it's found through genetic sequencing of the virus. Since the pandemic started, China has shared 4,144 sequences with GISAID, a global platform for coronavirus data.

That's only 0.04 per cent of its reported number of cases - a rate more than 100 times less than the United States and nearly four times less than neighbouring Mongolia.

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2023-01-06 09:09:00Z
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Hong Kongers await border reopening with mixed feelings - CNA

HONG KONG: Shanghai engineer Roy Wang has a pressing task now that the border between Hong Kong and China is being reopened - rekindling his long-distance relationship after a painful separation.

"There were so many quarrels with my girlfriend. It was really miserable to handle," Wang, 23, told AFP on Wednesday (Jan 4).

His wish to visit her was granted the very next day.

Authorities announced that widespread travel between Hong Kong and China would resume from Sunday, initially allowing about 60,000 people a day to cross in each direction.

Those measures are a game-changer for many after the border was effectively sealed for nearly three years during the coronavirus pandemic, separating loved ones, cutting off tourism and severing most business travel.

"I feel so relieved," Wang said after he heard the news. "After waiting for so long, even though the process is very hard, the result is satisfying."

Hong Kong's recession-hit economy is desperate to reconnect with its biggest source of growth, and families are looking forward to reunions over the Chinese New Year later this month.

Within a day of the new rules being announced, more than 280,000 Hong Kongers registered to go to China.

But not everyone in Hong Kong shares the excitement.

HOSPITALS UNDER PRESSURE

Some worry about a potential surge of patients for Hong Kong's already stretched hospitals and competition for medical supplies in one of the world's most densely populated cities.

Others are reluctant to bid farewell to a less crowded life.

And some fear a resurgence of animosity towards the Chinese that was a partial catalyst for the huge, now crushed, democracy protests that convulsed Hong Kong in 2019.

The reopening of the border comes as China faces soaring coronavirus infections after suddenly abandoning its strict zero-COVID strategy.

Hong Kong is also experiencing a winter uptick, with daily COVID-19 hospitalisations rising from 3,000 to more than 5,300 in December and a bed occupancy rate of up to 120 percent.

"I find it quite interesting that the authorities chose to reopen the border now, when the outbreak in China is on the rise," a public hospital doctor who requested anonymity told AFP.

Siddharth Sridhar, a clinical virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the healthcare system was largely coping despite increased pressure.

"One of the reasons... is that the local population has high levels of hybrid immunity," Sridhar told AFP.

In recent weeks, pharmacy shelves have been cleared of paracetamol and fever medication after Hong Kongers bought up supplies for relatives in China.

Some private hospitals have begun advertising deals to sell western mRNA vaccine shots that China has yet to approve.

Hong Kong's government has vowed that the hospital and vaccine system will not be upended by the border reopening.

On Thursday, Health Minister Lo Chung-mau said visitors would not be able to access the city's free vaccination scheme although private hospitals were free to sell shots.

Infected visitors will have to pay to use public hospitals and medical supplies have been stockpiled, he added.

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2023-01-06 03:17:27Z
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Soaring COVID-19 cases shine light on China's healthcare gap - CNA

Yet in the neglected rural town of Xin'an, the sparsely equipped local hospital was operating at well below full capacity.

In a poorly heated room near reception, around half a dozen elderly people huddled in thick overcoats, drips protruding from their arms.

But most of the seats were unoccupied, and the pressure on staff appeared far lower than their municipal counterparts.

LACK OF PROGRESS

"What we are seeing in rural China epitomises the lack of progress in China's healthcare reform," said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council of Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan US think tank.

"People dissatisfied with the poor quality of rural healthcare will bypass (local providers) to seek care in urban hospitals."

As the initial wave starts to ebb, the pressure on some facilities may be receding - even as the seriously sick continue to flock to municipal institutions.

Many rural residents, meanwhile, struggle for nearby access to doctors and medicines, and public health literacy is often patchy.

A local shopkeeper in Xin'an said a COVID-19 outbreak had swept through the settlement of around 30,000 people in December, but "the worst of it has passed".

And hospital staff and local residents there said those requiring treatment for severe illness usually made the 90-minute journey up the highway to Tianjin or pushed on to Baoding, a city some 200 kilometres away where a recent outbreak overwhelmed hospitals.

Medical services in mid-size municipalities also appear to be less stretched than in China's megacities.

In Tangshan - a smaller industrial city of 7.7 million people - the scene was calmer than that in Tianjin about two hours away.

Around two dozen patients of advanced age filled the resuscitation ward of a central hospital, with one nurse saying they had "all tested positive" for COVID-19.

Only three or four patients occupied makeshift beds in the corridors outside.

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2023-01-06 06:59:00Z
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'More the merrier': Asia tourist hubs ready for China influx - CNA

TOKYO: In Tokyo's Asakusa tourist district, caricaturist Masashi Higashitani is dusting off his Chinese as he prepares for an influx of travellers after Beijing ends inbound quarantine rules.

"We used to say 'ni hao' all the time," he said with a laugh as he whipped up a portrait in minutes.

Nearly 9.6 million Chinese visited Japan in 2019, the biggest group of foreign tourists by far and a massive leap from the 450,000 who came in 2003.

Higashitani estimates around 20 per cent of his customers were from China before the pandemic, and he and his employees picked up Chinese phrases from those visitors and each other.

He had to downsize and let staff go during the pandemic, so he is thrilled about the expected wave of arrivals, even though he admits some apprehension too.

"I wonder if an influx of too many of them might overwhelm our capacity. I'm also worried that we need to be more careful about anti-virus measures," he told AFP.

Travellers arriving back in China will no longer need to quarantine from Sunday (Jan 8), removing one of the main barriers to travel for the country's population.

The move, announced in late December, sparked a frenzy of trip planning, with searches spiking for Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.

Chinese tourists also made up about a third of all pre-pandemic foreign visitors to South Korea and were among the top three groups visiting Thailand and Indonesia.

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2023-01-06 04:08:51Z
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China insists COVID-19 data 'transparent' after WHO criticism - CNA

Beijing: China on Thursday (Jan 5) insisted it had been transparent with the international community about its COVID-19 data, as it hit back against World Health Organization (WHO) criticism that its tally of virus deaths was understating the true scale of its outbreak.

There is mounting international concern over China's steep rise in COVID-19 infections since Beijing abruptly lifted years of hardline restrictions last month, with hospitals and crematoriums quickly overwhelmed.

More than a dozen countries have imposed fresh COVID-19 rules on visitors from China in the wake of that outbreak, requiring all arrivals to submit negative virus tests with some screening wastewater from flights arriving from the world's most populous nation.

China has only recorded 23 COVID-19 deaths since December, after dramatically narrowing the criteria for classifying such fatalities. Beijing's statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen by other countries as not reflecting reality.

In Geneva on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said the global organisation was without "complete data" from China.

"We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths," he said.

The definition Beijing is using is "very narrow", he added.

Beijing hit back on Thursday, insisting China had "always shared relevant information and data with the international community, with an open and transparent attitude".

"We ... hope the WHO secretariat will uphold a scientific, objective and just position, and make efforts to play a positive role for the world's response to the pandemic challenge," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing.

She also urged countries against imposing fresh travel restrictions on arrivals from China, calling instead for them to "work together to protect the normal movements of people".

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2023-01-05 09:33:00Z
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Thailand says no COVID-19 test needed for travellers from China - CNA

BANGKOK: Thai authorities said on Thursday (Jan 5) that travellers from China could enter the country without pre-departure coronavirus tests, hoping their return would be a shot in the arm for the country's tourism sector recovery.

China has experienced a surge in infections and its hospitals and crematoriums have been inundated after Beijing last month wound back tight restrictions.

The United States, Canada, Japan and France are among the countries that have imposed new rules requiring travellers from China to provide negative COVID-19 tests as concerns grow over the spike in cases.

But Thai authorities on Thursday said all countries should be treated the same.

"Thailand does not require COVID-19 test results from tourists from any country," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters on Thursday following a meeting between health, tourism and transportation officials.

China was the largest source of foreign tourists for Thailand before the pandemic, with almost 11 million arrivals in 2019, according to government data.

Tourism accounted for nearly 20 per cent of national income before the pandemic, and tough border restrictions at the height of the health crisis took a toll on hotels, restaurants and tour operators across the country.

"This is an opportunity to restore our economic situation and recover from losses we suffered for nearly three years," Anutin said.

Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said he expected about 60,000 Chinese nationals to enter Thailand this month and for numbers to steadily rise.

"We expect Chinese tourists to come to Thailand after Chinese New Year," Tourism Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan said.

In December, Thailand clocked its 10 millionth international visitor for 2022 - a major increase on the 430,000 seen in 2021 but still way off the 40 million arrivals of 2019.

Thai officials are forecasting some 20 million arrivals in 2023, though they believe Chinese tourists could push the figure up to around 25 million.

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2023-01-05 08:54:00Z
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Chinese man who went missing in South Korea after testing positive for COVID-19 found by police - CNA

SEOUL: South Korean police found on Thursday (Jan 5) a Chinese man who went missing after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, and said he would be taken to a quarantine facility and could later be charged under a disease control law.

The man's disappearance after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival at Incheon airport on Tuesday and being ordered into quarantine raised concern about increasing infections after China abandoned a tough "zero-COVID" policy and prepares to scrap travel restrictions as its cases rapidly increase.

"The person was found at a hotel in Seoul this afternoon," a police officer said, adding the man in his 40s would be taken to a facility to spend the stipulated seven days in quarantine.

"We plan to investigate the individual once the mandatory isolation period is completed."

The man has been on a wanted list for allegedly running away while awaiting admission to quarantine.

He could be subject to up to one year in prison, or 10 million won (US$7,840) in fines, if convicted of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, officials said.

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2023-01-05 07:10:00Z
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