China's state media downplayed the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the country on Tuesday, with scientists set to brief the World Health Organization on the virus's evolution later in the day.
China's 7 December U-turn on COVID measures and the integrity of its case and fatality data have come under growing scrutiny domestically and internationally, prompting several nations to apply travel restrictions.
The policy move was precipitated by demonstrations over the "zero COVID" approach championed by President Xi Jinping and coincided with China's worst economic growth in nearly half a century.
As the epidemic spreads unchecked, funeral homes report increased demand for their services. International health experts forecast at least one million fatalities in the world's most populated nation this year.
China reported three more COVID deaths on Monday, up from one on Sunday. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the official death toll has stood at 5,253.
In an article published on Tuesday, People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, cited several Chinese experts who stated that the disease caused by the virus was very moderate for most individuals.
Vice President of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Tong Zhaohui told the newspaper that 3% to 4% of infected patients now admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing suffer from severe illnesses.
Kang Yan, director of the West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University, reported that 46 critically ill patients were brought to intensive care units over the past three weeks, representing approximately 1% of symptomatic infections.
More than 80% of residents in the southwestern province of Sichuan have been affected, according to local health authorities.
Friday, the World Health Organization asked China's health officials to communicate accurate and timely information regarding COVID consistently.
At a technical advisory committee meeting slated for Tuesday, the agency has invited Chinese scientists to submit in-depth data on viral sequencing. It has also requested hospitalization, mortality, and vaccine statistics from China.
As reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, the European Union has given China free COVID vaccines to help manage the outbreak.
EU health officials will meet on Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response to the outbreak in China, the Swedish EU presidency announced on Monday.
The United States, France, Australia, and India, among others, will mandate COVID testing for Chinese travelers, while Belgium will test Chinese aircraft's wastewater for new COVID variations.
China has rejected criticisms of its COVID data and stated that new mutations might be more contagious but less dangerous.
"According to the political logic of some people in Europe and the United States, whether China opens or does not open is equally the wrong thing to do," CCTV said in a Monday night editorial.
Economic Concerns
As Chinese employees and consumers become ill, fears about the growth prospects of the second-largest economy in the world increase, weighing on Asian stocks.
According to data released on Tuesday, China's factory activity contracted rapidly in December as the COVID outbreak disrupted output and reduced demand.
A source with firsthand knowledge of the situation stated that December shipments from Foxconn's (2317. TW) Zhengzhou iPhone facility, which was hampered late last year by a COVID epidemic that spurred worker departures and dissatisfaction, were 90% of the company's initial plans.
Krista Georgieva, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, stated that a "bushfire" of illnesses in China in the following months would undoubtedly harm the country's economy this year and impede global growth.
"China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic," Capital Economics researchers said.
As the movement preceding the Lunar New Year commences, areas of the country that are not currently experiencing a significant COVID outbreak may soon be affected.
They stated that mobility statistics revealed that national economic activity was weak and would likely remain so until the infection wave subsided.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourists of China reported that the domestic tourism sector recorded 52.71 million trips for the New Year's break, which was flat year-on-year and just 43% of the 2019 levels before the epidemic.
The generated revenue exceeded 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), an increase of 4% year-over-year, but only approximately 35% of the revenue created in 2019, according to the government.
Ahead of China's most important holiday, the Lunar New Year, later this month, several experts anticipate that daily COVID instances will have peaked in many regions of the country. According to Chinese media, some hotels in the southern tourist destination of Sanya are fully booked for the season.
