Hopeful New Year’s speech
Xi Jinping speaks well of the chaos of the Chinese crown
As hospitals in China are overcrowded, Chinese head of state Xi Jinping is optimistic in his New Year’s speech. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is calling for more transparency from China.
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If the number of corona diseases in China exploded, the head of state Xi Jinping wants to give hope to the Chinese people in his New Year’s speech.
Despite the current surge of coronavirus in his country, Chinese head of state Xi Jinping (69) spoke optimistically about the fight against the pandemic in his New Year’s speech. “The light of hope is right in front of us,” Xi said in Saturday’s televised address. Prevention and control measures are entering a “new phase”, “everyone is working with determination” in the fight against the virus, he stressed.
China is currently experiencing the highest increase in corona infections in the world. Hospitals and crematoria are overcrowded in many places and many pharmacies are out of antipyretic supplies. In early December Beijing, in a radical about-face, backed down on its strict zero-Covid policy, which had sparked growing resentment among the population. Since then, the corona restrictions have been significantly relaxed.
Chinese authorities announced more than 7,000 new cases of infection and one new death from corona on Saturday. However, the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher.
Official trick to overlook the number of dead
The authorities have recently changed the criteria for recording corona deaths. As a result, only those who died directly of respiratory failure caused by the virus are counted as corona deaths. Previously, as in other countries of the world, all people who died of illness during a corona infection were counted as corona deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) called for more transparency on the rise in corona cases in a meeting with Chinese officials on Friday. WHO has “once again called for the regular sharing of specific real-time data on the epidemiological situation,” the organization said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (51) rejected allegations that his country did not provide enough data. “Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has shared relevant information and data with the international community, including WHO, in an open and transparent manner,” he said.
Several countries have now announced or already introduced a corona test requirement for travelers from China. More recently, the EU countries France and Spain as well as Great Britain, Israel and South Korea announced that travelers from China will have to show a negative corona test in the future.
In France, for example, the obligation for travelers from China to present a negative test before departure will apply from 5 January. Germany, on the other hand, continues to waive this testing obligation. (AFP)
