China’s COVID Surge Leads Countries to Adopt Entry Restrictions

Medical staff wait to assist a patient at a fever clinic treating COVID-19 patients in Beijing on Dec. 21, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Nations around the world are implementing or considering entry restrictions for travelers coming from China as the country grapples with a surge in COVID-19 infections, with neighbors Japan and India imposing strict screening measures.

In the first 20 days of December, 248 million people in China are estimated to have contracted COVID-19, officials said during an internal meeting of China’s National Health Commission on Dec. 21. This comes to around 18 percent of the entire population in the country, while the population of the United States is under 332 million. As many as 37 million people are contracting COVID-19 in a single day in China.

From Dec. 30, Japan will mandate COVID-19 tests for all visitors from China. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that China’s lack of transparency and information about the infections makes it tougher to figure out the necessary safety measures that need to be taken.

Numbers reported from the Chinese regime, private organizations, central, and local authorities all have huge discrepancies, he noted. Direct flights between China and Japan will be limited to just four major Japanese airports for now.

The new policy is intended to prevent the “rapid increase of infections” in Japan and is not aimed at stopping the global movement of people, the prime minister stated. Japan has also halted its planned increase in the number of flights with China.

India, United States

On Dec. 24, India mandated COVID-19 negative tests for travelers coming from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand.

If passengers from these countries test positive for COVID-19 or show symptoms, they would be placed under quarantine. India is also randomly testing 2 percent of international travelers who arrive at its airports.

The United States is also reportedly considering entry restrictions for Chinese travelers, and has expressed worries about the lack of transparency about infections.

“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,” U.S. officials said in a statement.

Germany and the UK are not currently considering restricting Chinese travelers but admitted that they were closely monitoring the situation.

Malaysia has imposed new surveillance and tracking measures for Chinese travelers. In Taiwan, inbound travelers will be tested for COVID-19 beginning Jan. 1. Passengers coming from China will need to take PCR tests upon entry.

The surge in infection in China comes as the country plans to ease restrictions for visitors. Beginning Jan. 8, inbound travelers will not be subjected to quarantine, and outbound tourism will be opened up.

One health expert told The Epoch Times that the regime’s opening up of its borders amid the massive COVID outbreak was “extremely irresponsible” and could trigger a global resurgence of the virus. The risk was particularly acute given that the communist regime was not sharing data on the outbreak with the outside world, said Sean Lin, a virologist and former lab director at the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

COVID in China

The rapid rise in infections has placed intense pressure on China’s hospitals and funeral homes. China officially reported three deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday, up from one on Monday. However, these numbers are not consistent with what funeral parlors are reporting, according to a Reuters report.

In the Dongjia funeral home in the southwestern city of Chengdu, one of the biggest in the region, car parks were full and funeral processions were constant.

“We have to do this about 200 times a day now,” one funeral worker told Reuters. “We are so busy we don’t even have time to eat. This has been the case since the opening up. Before it was around 30-50 a day.”

Beijing eased its strict COVID-19 restrictions earlier this month after historic discontent over the draconian curbs. But without adequate planning and measures for a graduated retreat from the policy, the health system was left ill-equipped for a rapid rise in cases among a population that had little natural immunity to the virus.

Frontline services in China have been overrun, pharmacy shelves stripped bare, and hospitals stretched. Law enforcement facilities and judiciary have been shuttered.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Chinese historian Li Yuanhua, who lives in Australia, said that Beijing is now trying to quickly achieve herd immunity through mass infections so that it can revive its economy. “The Chinese Communist Party is all about politics … It never cares about people’s livelihood,” he said.

Eva Fu contributed to the report.