CORONA Main Coronavirus thread
- Thread starter Heliobas Disciple
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John Deere Girl
Veteran Member
I get it, I really do, and I'm glad our daughter and SIL get it now as well, but my FIL will get every vax and booster available even now. He told my DH it was the best decision he's made, and my DH has no filter left and told him that's what caused all these issues. He won't listen.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
It’s hard.
But one can only say so much, so I just don’t say a word.
Zoner
Veteran Member
Zoner
Veteran Member
Good question that deserves a good answer
Valann
Contributing Member
I did run across this-
There have been 94 deaths from Invasive Group A Streptococcus infections (iGAS) across England between September 12 and December 12, including 21 children under the age of 18, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Infections become life-threatening when the strep A bacteria invades parts of the body where it is not usually found, such as the lungs or the bloodstream. Symptoms include a high temperature, severe muscle aches and a sore throat.
A number of suspected cases of a rare infection have been identified by GPs across London so far this year - as medics continue to monitor an out-of-season rise in Strep A. In fact, analysis shows that doctors in London have identified 78 potential cases of invasive group A streptococcal disease since the start of 2022.
www.mylondon.news
There have been 94 deaths from Invasive Group A Streptococcus infections (iGAS) across England between September 12 and December 12, including 21 children under the age of 18, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Infections become life-threatening when the strep A bacteria invades parts of the body where it is not usually found, such as the lungs or the bloodstream. Symptoms include a high temperature, severe muscle aches and a sore throat.
A number of suspected cases of a rare infection have been identified by GPs across London so far this year - as medics continue to monitor an out-of-season rise in Strep A. In fact, analysis shows that doctors in London have identified 78 potential cases of invasive group A streptococcal disease since the start of 2022.
New map shows the London boroughs with the most invasive strep A cases
Many boroughs have seen suspected cases since the start of the year
www.mylondon.news
naegling62
Veteran Member
naegling62
Veteran Member
naegling62
Veteran Member
naegling62
Veteran Member
I have the utmost confidence in this lady.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
U.S. Weighs New Precautionary Measures for Travelers From China
Beijing ends zero-Covid, prompting a surge in flight bookings; Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are favorite travel choices.
www.wsj.com
Chinese Rush for Exit as Beijing Ends Zero-Covid and Opens Its Doors
Surge in flight bookings suits some; others see more danger in letting the coronavirus loose
By Raffaele Huang and Rachel Liang
Dec. 27, 2022 7:24 am ET
SINGAPORE—Moments after China said it would reopen its borders to international travel for the first time in almost three years, sales of air tickets out of the country soared, as people leapt at the chance to put the stifling restrictions of zero-Covid behind them.
Top of the getaway wish list were regional destinations a short hop away, with Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan favorite choices. Bookings more than tripled from the day before, data from travel company Trip.com Group show.
[the rest is behind a paywall; I think we can see all we need to see with just those two paragraphs though]
I know the CCP has no intention of spreading death and disease around the globe, but if they were, they couldn't plan any better than opening up after zero covid with no preps and then opening their borders and promoting the idea of people going out and mingling with the rest of the world. Good thing we trust their intentions are always honorable.
HD
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Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
The hospitalizations and deaths are going up (deaths look to be spiking) while cases only moderately going up. Either they aren't testing or the tests aren't picking up this variant of covid (my uneducated suspicion).
HD
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Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
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HSE secures private beds as hospitals struggle to handle ‘apocalyptic’ surge in respiratory illnesses
Emergency department at Cork University Hospital described as ‘crowded beyond recognition’
HSE secures private beds as hospitals struggle to handle ‘apocalyptic’ surge in respiratory illnesses
Emergency department at Cork University Hospital described as ‘crowded beyond recognition’
Pat Leahy, Simon Carswell, Jack Power
Sat Dec 24 2022 - 05:00
The HSE has made arrangements to take space in a number of private hospitals, including St Vincent’s and the Mater in Dublin, as it attempts to deal with surging numbers of people falling ill with respiratory infections.
With the health system expected to be further stretched after Christmas due to people gathering while a number of illnesses are in circulation, some private hospitals are understood to have already started clearing space and making preparations to receive public patients.
The move is intended to create additional capacity as the health service prepares for what the HSE said could be the “highest pressures” it has ever faced over the coming weeks. Some €20 million has been set aside by the HSE for the move, which will provide between 150-200 additional beds, sources said.
[ HSE secures private beds as hospitals struggle to handle ‘apocalyptic’ surge in respiratory illnesses ]
The HSE has also agreed with GPs’ representatives to run extra clinics in the days after Christmas to deal ease pressures on hospital as demand rises again.
“We would be naive not to expect very significant pressures,” the HSE’s chief operations officer Damian McCallion said.
The numbers requiring hospital treatment for Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses to date have surpassed the HSE’s “more pessimistic projections”. There are currently some 1,200 people in hospitals with respiratory illness such as flu, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The HSE expects more than 900 people to be in hospital with flu early next month, in addition to up to 1,000 with Covid-19.
Prof Conor Deasy, president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine and a consultant at Cork University Hospital (CUH), said the impact from the pre-Christmas wave of respiratory viruses has been “worse than I have ever experienced it”. He said the surge had left the hospital system in an “apocalyptic” state and far worse than at any point during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met senior health service officials on Friday to discuss the pressures arising due to the surge. He later told reporters that the HSE should “deploy all resources available” to meet the challenge.
“My message to the HSE... is that I want all resources available to be deployed immediately and over the winter period, and that includes the use of private hospitals, use of overtime, whatever can be done should be done to minimise suffering and inconvenience to patients.”
The HSE has been in contact with private hospitals in recent days, and sources indicated that arrangements have been made with a number of them.
GP services were described as being “flat out” by Dr Mel Bates, medical director of the Northdoc service in Dublin, who said family doctors were struggling to cope with the “horrific” levels of “unexpected demand” seen in recent weeks. “The under-16s are taking up 50 per cent of the appointments …The system is falling over” he said.
Prof Deasy described the emergency department at CUH as “crowded beyond recognition” as it dealt with 136 patients. He said it was a struggle dealing with ambulances offloading more patients while staff tried to maintain social distancing between them to prevent infections spreading.
“It wasn’t as difficult as this during Covid – this is worse,” he told The Irish Times. “During Covid we had various lockdowns that reduced the business-as-usual activity but that has been busier than at its height before the Covid pandemic, and then you throw in a surge in winter viruses and RSV with influenza and Covid on top of that and it is apocalyptic.”
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said “dysfunction” in emergency departments was a result of “everything going wrong at the same time in a health service which does not have enough capacity”.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary, said there was now a “real concern” from nurses that staff could not provide safe care due to current pressures. Frontline staff had for weeks been “sounding the alarm” and the HSE should have reacted much earlier, she said.
However, Mr Varadkar rejected criticism that the Government was not prepared. He said that while there were no plans to reintroduce mandatory wearing of face covering, people were encouraged to do so in crowded spaces and on public transport. He appealed to people with respiratory symptoms to remain at home and for people to avail of flu and Covid-19 vaccines.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)
North East Ambulance Service declares critical incident due to extreme pressures
27 December 2022
North East Ambulance Service has today (27 December 2022) declared a critical incident because of unprecedented pressure following the Christmas break impacting its ability to respond to patients.
The incident was declared this morning as a result significant delays for more than 100+ patients waiting for an ambulance, together with a reduction in ambulance crew availability to respond because of delays in handing over patients at the region’s hospitals.
Shane Woodhouse, strategic commander today at North East Ambulance Service, said: “This is the second time in nine days that we have declared a critical incident due to the unprecedented pressure we are seeing across the health system.
“Declaring a critical incident alerts our health system partners to provide support where they can and means we can focus our resources on those patients most in need.
“The public should only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency. For all other patients, we are urging them to use www.111.nhs.uk, speak to their GP or pharmacist. We will be advising some patients to make their own way to hospital when it is safe to do so. We know patients will be experiencing longer waits for an ambulance – please only call back if your condition worsens or to cancel if it is no longer required. We are experiencing greater numbers of calls to 111 right now and ask that callers please consider 111 online first and don’t call 999 unless your condition is life threatening.”
NEAS has been operating at its highest level of alert status over the Christmas break, keeping in place many of the actions from the previous declaration of a critical incident to cope over the extended bank holiday weekend covering Christmas and Boxing Day.
Patient transport services for appointments continues to only operate for essential journeys such as dialysis, chemotherapy, oncology and heart care. This reduction in service will run until later this week to allow NEAS to redeploy these crews to support lower acuity emergency care patients as well as our hospitals with discharges.
Shane added: “Our staff and volunteers continue to work extremely hard to respond to calls and incidents. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and commitment at this challenging time.”
North East Ambulance Service declares critical incident due to extreme pressures
27 December 2022
North East Ambulance Service has today (27 December 2022) declared a critical incident because of unprecedented pressure following the Christmas break impacting its ability to respond to patients.
The incident was declared this morning as a result significant delays for more than 100+ patients waiting for an ambulance, together with a reduction in ambulance crew availability to respond because of delays in handing over patients at the region’s hospitals.
Shane Woodhouse, strategic commander today at North East Ambulance Service, said: “This is the second time in nine days that we have declared a critical incident due to the unprecedented pressure we are seeing across the health system.
“Declaring a critical incident alerts our health system partners to provide support where they can and means we can focus our resources on those patients most in need.
“The public should only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency. For all other patients, we are urging them to use www.111.nhs.uk, speak to their GP or pharmacist. We will be advising some patients to make their own way to hospital when it is safe to do so. We know patients will be experiencing longer waits for an ambulance – please only call back if your condition worsens or to cancel if it is no longer required. We are experiencing greater numbers of calls to 111 right now and ask that callers please consider 111 online first and don’t call 999 unless your condition is life threatening.”
NEAS has been operating at its highest level of alert status over the Christmas break, keeping in place many of the actions from the previous declaration of a critical incident to cope over the extended bank holiday weekend covering Christmas and Boxing Day.
Patient transport services for appointments continues to only operate for essential journeys such as dialysis, chemotherapy, oncology and heart care. This reduction in service will run until later this week to allow NEAS to redeploy these crews to support lower acuity emergency care patients as well as our hospitals with discharges.
Shane added: “Our staff and volunteers continue to work extremely hard to respond to calls and incidents. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and commitment at this challenging time.”
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I’m not familiar with her?
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
I posted an article from Thailand Medical News about Japan a few days ago. Looks like he called this one correctly too.
This is tragic. In just the last few days they reached (or got very close, give it a day or two) their two year peak for deaths.
View: https://twitter.com/Yash25571056/status/1607543374546079744/photo/1
This is tragic. In just the last few days they reached (or got very close, give it a day or two) their two year peak for deaths.
View: https://twitter.com/Yash25571056/status/1607543374546079744/photo/1
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
She was (is?) a frequent guest on War Room a while back, that's how I became familiar with her. She also reported on the Chinese build up to war. Some people call her a deepstate shill or propagandist but I think that's a name people throw around when they don't agree with someone. What she says scares people...
HD
naegling62
Veteran Member
She's a dissident but highly reliable.
Tristan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Shortages increasing fast. Like we’ve said all…along get what you’ll need ASAP!
View: https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1604756126825943041
View: https://twitter.com/YaxueCao/status/1604985297829523458
View: https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1604756126825943041
View: https://twitter.com/YaxueCao/status/1604985297829523458
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Isn’t this guy one of the bad guys? Can’t keep track.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Chinese Tourists Flock to the Borders, Potentially Spreading Coronavirus Outbreak Worldwide
Travel bookings surged in China on Tuesday after the announcement that passports will once again be processed despite a coronavirus wave.
www.breitbart.com
Chinese Tourists Flock to the Borders, Potentially Spreading Coronavirus Outbreak Worldwide
John Hayward
27 Dec 2022
Travel bookings surged in China on Tuesday after the National Immigration Administration announced passport applications will once again be processed as of January 8, 2023. The policy change ends years-old travel restrictions just as the biggest coronavirus wave of the entire pandemic sweeps across China. Several other countries, such as Japan and India, announced their own restrictions on Chinese travelers in response.
Some Chinese provinces are now reporting millions of coronavirus infections in a single day, as an even more infectious variant of the highly contagious Omicron strain spreads like wildfire through a population with very little natural immunity, thanks to years of dictator Xi Jinping’s brutal “zero Covid” citywide lockdowns.
This would seem like an odd time to loosen (or, as the Chinese Communist Party likes to say, “optimize”) travel restrictions, unless one is determined to ensure the incredibly contagious strain of coronavirus ravaging one’s population is spread as quickly as possible across the world, to ensure China is not the only country to suffer its economy-crushing symptoms.
Nevertheless, China announced the end of mandatory quarantine for inbound travelers on Monday, and on Tuesday it began ramping up its passport machinery for the big Lunar New Year travel season, as reported by the state-run Xinhua news service:
The National Immigration Administration issued a notice on Tuesday, saying that the optimized policies and measures include the resumption of accepting and approval of Chinese citizens’ applications for ordinary passports for the purposes of tourism and visiting friends abroad starting from the date.
The administration will also resume the processing of endorsements for Chinese mainland residents to visit the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for tourism and business purposes, as well as the issuance of exit-and-entry permits of the People’s Republic of China and exit-and-entry permits for border control areas, the notice said.
Services related to the application for ordinary visas, stay permits, and residence permits by foreigners will be resumed, the notice said, adding that expedited procedures may be applied for in case of urgent need.
The BBC reported a “spike in traffic” of up to 1000% at Chinese travel sites, which apparently made Japan and India nervous enough to require negative coronavirus tests and brief quarantine periods from Chinese travelers.Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said China’s “lack of information-sharing and transparency” about the coronavirus, and the “huge discrepancies” between tallies of infections and fatalities from various sources, compelled Japan to take steps to “prevent the rapid increase of infections in this country.”
The BBC quoted Chinese social media users who were stunned by their government’s sudden enthusiasm for international travel in the middle of a gigantic coronavirus wave, which they know is much more deadly than Beijing wants to admit:
“I’m happy about it but also speechless. If we’re doing this [reopening] anyway – why did I have to suffer all the daily Covid tests and lockdowns this year?” said Rachel Liu, who lives in Shanghai.
She said she had endured three months of lockdown in April – but nearly everyone in her family had become infected in recent weeks.
She said her parents, grandparents and partner – living across three different cities in Xi’an, Shanghai and Hangzhou – had all come down with fever last week.
Many have also expressed concern online about borders reopening as Covid cases peak.
“Why can’t we wait until this wave passes to open up? The medical workers are already worn out, and old people won’t survive two infections in one month,” read one top-liked comment on Weibo.
Also on Tuesday, China’s National Health Commission downgraded Covid-19 to a Class B infectious disease, changing its name from “novel coronavirus pneumonia” to “novel coronavirus infection.”
These changes were ostensibly based on the Omicron strain being less dangerous than the original Wuhan coronavirus. Among other ramifications, the downgrade of Covid-19 to Class B makes it procedurally easier for the Chinese government to lift travel restrictions.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
'Extremely Irresponsible': Expert Warns China's Border Reopening Amid COVID Surge May Trigger Global Pandemic Resurgence
A health expert has sharply criticized the Chinese regime’s lifting of international travel restrictions in the midst of ...
www.theepochtimes.com
‘Extremely Irresponsible’: Expert Warns China’s Border Reopening Amid COVID Surge May Trigger Global Pandemic Resurgence
By Alex Wu
December 28, 2022
A health expert has sharply criticized the Chinese regime’s lifting of international travel restrictions in the midst of a massive COVID wave sweeping through the country, saying the move is “extremely irresponsible” and could cause a global resurgence of the pandemic.
The National Health Commission announced on Dec. 26 that the country would end all quarantine requirements for inbound travelers from Jan. 8, 2023. Travelers will need to obtain a negative PCR test within 48 hours of departure, it said. Currently, travelers entering China need to undergo five days of mandatory quarantine in an approved facility, followed by three days at home.
The health body added that outbound tourism, which plummeted to almost nothing during the pandemic, will resume in an “orderly” fashion. It also removed the cap on the number of international flights to and from China.
The regime’s immigration administration said that passport applications for citizens intending to travel internationally will resume on Jan. 8.
Since these announcements, a top topic on Chinese social media has been “I can finally go abroad” after nearly three years of travel restrictions.
Data from travel sites show that Chinese residents are rushing to book overseas trips.
Chinese travel platform Tongcheng Travel released data on Dec. 27, showing that the number of searches for visas to go abroad increased by 10 times, and the search volume of international air tickets soared by 850 percent.
Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and the UK were among the most searched destinations.
The border reopening comes as China is gripped in a surge of COVID, which by the regime’s own estimates infected 248 million people in the first 20 days of December. Analysis by UK researchers also projected 167 and 279 million cases nationwide, which could lead to between 1.3 and 2.1 million deaths.
Earlier this month, the communist regime abruptly reversed its draconian zero-COVID policy that had battered the economy and caused extreme suffering among hundreds of millions who endured sporadic lockdowns for nearly three years.
But the lack of preparation for the lifting of the policy has resulted in health services and mortuaries being overwhelmed, and severe drug shortages as the virus spirals out of control across the country.
Infecting the World
Sean Lin, a virologist and former lab director at the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) opening up of the country is actually a strategy to get everyone infected not only within China, but around the world.
“When they can’t control the outbreak, they push it to the whole world. Just like when COVID first broke out in Wuhan, people who had been infected in Wuhan were allowed to travel around the world. The strategy is the same now as before,” he said.
COVID first broke out around the fall of 2019 in Wuhan, a city with 11 million residents in central China. Prior to the city’s lockdown on Jan. 23, 2020, more than 5 million had left the city without being screened for the virus, according to the then-mayor of Wuhan. During China’s initial lockdowns in January, the CCP had banned domestic travel, but left international travel open, meaning a large number of people carrying the virus were able to seed the disease all over the world.
Lin pointed to the regime’s lack of transparency amid the latest outbreak, a consistent behavior over the past three years during the pandemic.
“The CCP is not sharing data, and the international community doesn’t know how many different virus variants are spreading in China, and whether there are other compound infections,” he said.
“Under such circumstances, it is extremely irresponsible for the CCP to let the people out of the country which is a huge epidemic area. Put another way, it has a very treacherous purpose and is very malicious.”
The regime’s official virus case and death figures since the lifting of zero-COVID has drawn widespread skepticism. The country recorded only eight COVID deaths in December, a figure clashing with mounting reports of crematoriums across the country working at over capacity.
Health officials at the provincial and city level have also reported millions of infections in their region, contradicting the official count on the national level.
Amid international scrutiny of the regime’s virus data, the National Health Commission announced on Dec. 25 that it would no longer publish data on COVID case or death figures. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Dec. 27 that it would now publish such data once a month.
So far in response to the outbreak, India and Japan have tightened border controls mandating COVID tests for travelers from China.
Washington, meanwhile, is weighing controls for visitors from China due to concerns about the “lack of transparent data” coming from Beijing, unnamed U.S. officials told media outlets on Dec. 27.
Name Change
The regime also announced on Monday that it was downgrading control measures for COVID from the highest level to the second highest. This categorization effectively removed the justification for China’s stringent zero-COVID measures.
Alongside this move, Beijing changed the official Chinese name of COVID-19 from “new coronavirus pneumonia” to “new coronavirus infections.”
This name change is an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to downplay the worsening outbreak, according to Lin.
The CCP has changed the name of COVID-19 “because too many people have been infected by the virus and developed severe pneumonia, which shows as white sections in their lungs; and many need hospitalization, have shown severe symptoms, and even many deaths.”
“However, the CCP doesn’t want to admit that these people were infected and contracted ‘coronavirus pneumonia’ [COVID] so it changed its name,” he added.
This would make it easier for the regime to continue to say that the deaths of these people may be caused by other pathogens or other underlying diseases. “It can exclude these deaths from the COVID death data,” Lin said.
“But I think its essential purpose is to conceal three key data: hospitalization rate, severe symptom rate, and death rate.”
The regime last week greatly narrowed its definition of a COVID death by only counting deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting COVID, a change widely panned by disease experts. Under this new formula, deaths from complications at other sites in the body, or underlying conditions exacerbated by COVID will not be counted.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Japan to require COVID-19 tests for all visitors from China
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there .
apnews.com
Japan to require COVID-19 tests for all visitors from China
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Dec 27 2022
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there.
The announcement comes days after the World Health Organization said it was very concerned about rising reports of severe cases across China after the country largely abandoned its “zero-COVID” policy.
The quantitative antigen test that is already conducted on entrants suspected of having COVID-19 will be mandatory for all people arriving from mainland China. Those who test positive will be quarantined for seven days at designated facilities and their samples will be used for genome analysis.
The measure begins Friday, just as Japan heads into New Year’s holidays marked by parties and travel, when infections are expected to rise.
Last week India also mandated a COVID-19 test for travelers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, while ordering quarantine for those with symptoms or testing positive. India has also begun randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at aiports.
Kishida said China’s lack of information and transparency about the infections made it difficult to assess and figure out safety measures. There are huge discrepancies between information from central and local authorities, and between the government and private organizations, he said.
“There are growing worries in Japan,” Kishida said. “We have decided to take a temporary special measure to respond to the situation.”
Despite widespread outbreaks that are straining medical resources and disrupting businesses, China on Monday said that passengers arriving from abroad will no longer have to quarantine starting Jan. 8, though a negative test result within 48 hours of departure and in-flight masks are still required.
China has been “refining our COVID response in light of the evolving situation” while working with the global community, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperon Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.
In a nuanced criticism to tightening of border measures by Japan and India, Wang said: “China believes that the pandemic measures should be science-based and appropriate and should not affect normal personnel exchanges.”
Japan’s new measure aims to “prevent rapid increase of infections in this country” and is not intended to stop global movement of people, Kishida said. Japan will act flexibly while watching the development in China, he added, including halting the planned increase of flights between Japan and China “just to be safe.”
Direct flights between the two countries will be limited to four major Japanese airports for the time being, government officials said.
“The measure is not going to affect Japan’s policy to continue with our ongoing transition toward a ‘with-COVID’ lifestyle carefully and steadily while watching the infections at home,” Kishida said.
Japan earlier this year stopped requiring COVID-19 tests for entrants who had at least three shots — part of the country’s careful easing of measures after virtually closing its borders to foreign tourists for about two years.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
U.S. weighs new COVID rules for travelers from China, U.S. officials say
The move comes after Japan, India and Malaysia announced stepped up rules on travelers from China in the last 24 hours, citing a rise in infections there. Japan has said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from the China.
U.S. weighs new COVID rules for travelers from China, U.S. officials say
by Steve Holland
Tue, December 27, 2022, 8:06 PM EST
(Reuters) - The U.S. government may impose new COVID-19 measures on travelers to the United States from China over concerns about the "lack of transparent data" coming from Beijing, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The move comes after Japan, India and Malaysia announced stepped up rules on travelers from China in the last 24 hours, citing a rise in infections there.
Japan has said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from the China. Malaysia put in place additional tracking and surveillance measures.
"There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC," the officials said, using the initials of the People's Republic of China.
Some hospitals and funeral homes in China have been overwhelmed as the virus spreads largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.
Official statistics, however, showed only one COVID death in the seven days to Monday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government's data. The numbers are inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.
China said on Monday it would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8 in a major step towards easing curbs on its borders, which have been largely shut since 2020.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Foreign firms: China 'turns corner' by ending quarantine
BEIJING (AP) — Foreign companies welcomed China’s decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity while Japan on Tuesday joined India in announcing restrictions on visitors from the country as infections surge.
apnews.com
Foreign firms: China ‘turns corner’ by ending quarantine
By JOE McDONALD
December27, 2022
BEIJING (AP) — Foreign companies welcomed China’s decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity while Japan on Tuesday joined India in announcing restrictions on visitors from the country as infections surge.
The ruling Communist Party’s abrupt decision to lift some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls comes as it tries reverse an economic downturn. It has ended curbs that confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests, but hospitals have been flooded with feverish, wheezing patients as the virus spreads.
The announcement late Monday that quarantines for travelers from abroad will end Jan. 8 is the biggest step toward ending limits that have kept most foreign visitors out of China since early 2020. Quarantines were reduced last month from seven days to five.
Also Monday, the government downgraded the official seriousness of COVID-19 and dropped a requirement for people with the virus to be quarantined. That added to a rapid drumbeat of steps to dismantle controls that had been expected to stay in place at least through mid-2023.
“It finally feels like China has turned the corner,” the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Colm Rafferty, said in a statement. He said ending the quarantine “clears the way for resumption of normal business travel.”
Business groups have warned companies were shifting investment away from China because foreign executives were blocked from visiting.
The American chamber said more than 70% of companies that responded to a poll this month expect the impact of the latest wave of outbreaks to last no more than three months, ending in early 2023.
The British Chamber of Commerce expressed hope China will restart normal processing of business visas to allow “resumption of crucial people to people exchanges.” It said that will “contribute to restoring optimism and reinstating China as a priority investment destination.”
The move “will potentially boost business confidence,” but companies are likely to “wait to see how the situation on the ground evolves” before making long-term decisions, the European Chamber of Commerce in China said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Japan announced visitors from China will undergo virus tests starting Friday as a “temporary emergency measure.”
Visitors who test positive will be quarantined for one week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced. He said Japan also would reduce a planned increase in the number of flights between Japan and China “just to be safe.”
That follows India’s decision last week to begin requiring a negative virus test for travelers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand.
India also randomly tests 2% of airline passengers arriving from abroad. Visitors who test positive or have symptoms will be quarantined.
A foreign ministry spokesman defended China’s handling of the latest outbreaks.
“The Chinese government has always followed the principle of science-based and targeted measures,” said Wang Wenbin. He called for a “science-based response and coordinated approach” to keep travel safe and “promote a steady and sound recovery of the world economy.”
China kept its infection rate low with a “zero COVID” strategy that aimed to stamp out virus transmission by isolating every case. That prompted complaints controls were too extreme and counterproductive.
Starting last month, the ruling party has gradually joined the United States and other governments that are trying to live with the virus by treating infections instead of imposing blanket quarantines on cities or neighborhoods.
The ruling party announced changes Nov. 11 it said were aimed at reducing disruptions after economic activity slid. More changes were announced following protests that erupted Nov. 25 in Shanghai and other cities.
The government has stopped reporting nationwide case numbers but announcements by some cities indicate at least tens and possibly hundreds of millions of people might have been infected since the surge began in early October.
The outbreaks prompted complaints Beijing relaxed controls too abruptly. Officials say the wave began before the changes.
The government “should have done the job in a more meticulous way,” said Lu Haoming, a Beijing architect. “Although the death rate of this disease is not as serious as at the beginning, the first shock has still been quite severe.”
But he agreed with the decision to open up. “You have to import and export, right?” Lu said. “Although we did a good job of epidemic control this year, the economy was greatly harmed.”
China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 toll, a health official said last week. That excludes many deaths other countries would attribute to COVID-19.
Experts have forecast 1 to 2 million deaths in China through the end of 2023.
The National Health Commission announced a campaign Nov. 29 to raise the vaccination rate among older Chinese. Health experts say that is crucial to avoiding a health care crisis.
On Monday, the National Health Commission downgraded COVID-19 from a Class A infectious disease to a Class B disease and removed it from the list of illnesses that require quarantine. It said authorities would stop tracking down close contacts and designating areas as being at high or low risk of infection.
winodog
The Bible is a flat earth book
I do not read this thread so I apoligize if this has been posted. I stopped taking vitamins. Sounds like I better start again.
View: https://twitter.com/BrockRiddickIFB/status/1606387389370404867
View: https://twitter.com/BrockRiddickIFB/status/1606387389370404867
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I don’t know if he is a “bad guy” or not but I do know he is pro vaxx
So is Chris Turnbull for that matter.
I just follow them a little because they report what’s happening. I don’t feel like they are lying.
I’m not a Twitter member; I just go there looking for updates once in awhile.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Great post!!
Thank you! I love how he gives people easy to follow dosing and mg!
Yes, get back on your vitamins!!!
Zoner
Veteran Member
Yeah, let's wait for a while to decide what to do. Let's let plane loads of Chinese disembark on our shores first and then sit down and talk and decide what to do. After all, we don't want to be called racists like we called Donald Trump when he stopped air travel from China./ sarc off(fair use applies)U.S. weighs new COVID rules for travelers from China, U.S. officials say
The move comes after Japan, India and Malaysia announced stepped up rules on travelers from China in the last 24 hours, citing a rise in infections there. Japan has said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from the China.news.yahoo.com
U.S. weighs new COVID rules for travelers from China, U.S. officials say
by Steve Holland
Tue, December 27, 2022, 8:06 PM EST
(Reuters) - The U.S. government may impose new COVID-19 measures on travelers to the United States from China over concerns about the "lack of transparent data" coming from Beijing, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The move comes after Japan, India and Malaysia announced stepped up rules on travelers from China in the last 24 hours, citing a rise in infections there.
Japan has said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from the China. Malaysia put in place additional tracking and surveillance measures.
"There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC," the officials said, using the initials of the People's Republic of China.
Some hospitals and funeral homes in China have been overwhelmed as the virus spreads largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.
Official statistics, however, showed only one COVID death in the seven days to Monday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government's data. The numbers are inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.
China said on Monday it would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8 in a major step towards easing curbs on its borders, which have been largely shut since 2020.