The coronavirus pandemic dominated the world for two whole years, before regulations were eased, and international travel slowly started picking up. China recently announced that the restrictions on travel to the country would be lifted, effective from the 8th of January 2023.
Incoming travellers to China, would no longer be required to quarantine, and other measures pertaining to the pandemic, will also be eased from January 2023.
A virology professor from the Lyon University in France, Dr. Bruno Lina said that this could lead China to become a “breeding ground” for new, lethal variants. This is because the virus would now be able to spread easily in the world’s most populated country, especially with the majority lacking high immunity due to the previous spread, and a large number who chose to remain unvaccinated. This would enable the virus to mutate, thus making China fertile for the breeding of newer, and more dangerous variants.
It has also been reported that while the National Health authorities of China have stopped issuing daily update reports on COVID patients, officials placed in regions assume that thousands of people have been infected in recent weeks. One of the reports also recorded 250 million people exposed to the virus since the beginning of December. As such, hospitals in China have been overwhelmed recently.
The World Health Organisation’s chief scientist mentioned that a close watch needed to be kept at any emerging variants, especially considering that a large part of China’s population still remains unvaccinated, making them vulnerable to infection.
As COVID cases in China surged, many countries such as the US, Italy, Japan, India and Malaysia increased health regulations for travellers entering the country from China. US officials even reported that there was a lack of transparency from Chinese authorities about the COVID situation, making it tough to identify any potential variants and implement health regulations accordingly.
