Beijing: On Tuesday, China slammed growing international restrictions on travelers from its territory as "unacceptable" after more than a dozen countries imposed new Covid restrictions on visitors from the world's most populous nation.

As concern grows over the rise in cases, the United States, Canada, Japan and France are among the nations that require all visitors from China to present a negative Covid test prior to arrival.

After Beijing abruptly lifted years of strict restrictions last month, infections in China have risen sharply, increasingly overwhelming hospitals and cremation grounds.

Also Read: OIC condemns Israeli minister's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Beijing, however, has pressed ahead with a long-awaited reopening, last week announcing the end of mandatory quarantine on arrival and encouraging Chinese citizens to book international travel. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning, China has been the target of entry restrictions from some countries.

She continued, warning that China "could take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity," adding that "it lacks scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable."

In response, the United States said it had taken action because of China's "lack of adequate and transparent data" and concerns that the high number of cases could result in the emergence of new variants.

This is a strategy that is based completely and only on science," Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, told reporters in Washington.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the new rules when asked about China's response. Born said on FranceInfo radio, "I believe that by asking for tests we are doing what we should do. We will keep doing it."

Beijing continues to ban incoming visitors and refuse to issue visas to tourists or foreign students, so the rules now in place affect all visitors to China, not just Chinese citizens.

Since December, China has reported only 22 Covid deaths, and the criteria for classifying such deaths have been drastically reduced. As a result, Beijing's own figures regarding the unprecedented wave are now widely believed to be inaccurate.

Also Read:  4 people were killed in the crash in Australia, including the pilot and two British tourists

A senior doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals said up to 70 percent of the city's population may now be infected with Covid-19, according to state media on Tuesday, as medical professionals battled a surge in cases nationwide.

Most of Shanghai's 25 million residents, according to Chen Erzhen, vice president of Ruijin Hospital and member of the Covid expert advisory panel.

The epidemic in Shanghai is now very widespread and may affect 70% of the population, which according to them is 20 to 30 times higher than (in April and May). He made the statement to Dajiangdong Studio, which is owned by the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

More than 600,000 residents of Shanghai were infected during an excruciating two-month lockdown that began in April, and many of them were moved to mass quarantine facilities.

However, currently the Omicron variant is rapidly taking over the city.
Chinese health officials claim that the wave has already peaked in other important cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou.

Officials in charge of disease control in neighboring Zhejiang province said on Tuesday that one million new Covid infections have been reported in recent days and the province is heading towards a plateau.

Chen further said that 80 percent of emergency admissions to his Shanghai hospital were made by Covid patients, with daily emergency admissions being 1,600 before the restrictions were lifted.

He was quoted as saying, "More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day," and "about half of emergency admissions are vulnerable people over the age of 65."

AFP reporters see patients receiving urgent care outside the entrance of an overcrowded emergency ward at Tongren Hospital in downtown Shanghai on Tuesday.

Several elderly patients who were bedridden and receiving IV drips filled the hallways to capacity. AFP heard a woman and an elderly man arguing as they vied for drips at another hospital. She claimed, "I reached here first. I have also come here to collect the needle."

As millions prepare to head back to their hometowns for the week-long Lunar New Year public holiday starting January 21, Chinese officials are now preparing for a wave of the virus in the country's undeveloped rural areas.

Also Read:  Turkey's inflation drops to 64%, giving Erdogan more support.

Xiao Yahui, a representative of the National Health Commission, acknowledged that responding to the projected increase in rural areas would be "a huge challenge".

The fact that no one has returned home for Lunar New Year in the previous three years, but they can this year, is what worries us the most, Jiao said to state television CCTV on Monday.

We are even more concerned about the rural epidemic because there might be a retaliatory surge of urban residents travelling to the countryside to see their relatives.