All European Union member states will advise passengers on flights “to and from China” to wear medical masks as Covid breaks out in the country.
The EU will also advise international travelers from or to China, as well as airline and airport employees, “on personal hygiene and health measures.”
The bloc on Wednesday stopped introducing mandatory tests within the EU for people arriving from China after talks among the 27 member states failed to reach a unanimous agreement.
Instead, EU countries are “strongly encouraged to introduce a requirement to test negative for Covid-19 no more than 48 hours before departure from China.”
The bloc said it “will continue to monitor developments in China, including the amount of data transferred, to ensure EU coordination of any action deemed necessary.”
This comes after the World Health Organization accused the Chinese government of downplaying the Covid epidemic.
In the organization’s most critical remarks on Beijing since the start of the pandemic, senior WHO officials said data from China is still incomplete, especially on hospitalizations and deaths.
On Tuesday, scientists from the WHO Covid team met with Chinese scientists after calling for more information on the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and more transparency in tracking options.
The group said more than 700 genome sequences have been uploaded to the GISAID international data exchange platform, the most since Beijing lifted all restrictions in early December.
But WHO officials have said more openness is needed. Mike Ryan, director of emergencies at WHO, said: “We believe that the current data released by China understate the true impact of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, intensive care units and especially in terms of mortality.”
The Chinese government’s definition of Covid-related death is “too narrow,” he said, adding, “We still don’t have complete data.”
Beijing is forced to be more transparent about the epidemic after the lifting of restrictions led to a spike in cases. A leaked memo from Chinese health officials said there were about 250 million cases in the first three weeks of December.
But China still reports only a few deaths a day.
These discrepancies have raised fears among governments that a lack of transparency could mask a potentially dangerous new option that could jeopardize immunity.
A British source said officials were concerned that China might cover up or censor more troubling options. As a result, the UK government has stepped up its surveillance of positive cases in people who have recently traveled to the country to discover new options.
A briefing with Chinese scientists and WHO experts on Tuesday showed that there is no new variant of concern in the country.
However, senior WHO experts have also expressed concern about the XBB.1.5 Omicron sub-variant becoming the dominant strain in the US.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, said at a briefing in Geneva that XBB.1.5 is “the most transmissible sub-option found to date”, adding: “We are concerned about the benefit of growth.”
XBB.1.5 has immune evasion mutations, but scientists believe that people previously infected with Omicron or given the Covid vaccine are still protected from serious illness and death because it is a subline of Omicron.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.