China urges to avoid politicizing the Covid issue

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The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday called on all countries to adopt a science-based and objective approach in formulating response measures to Covid-19 and avoid politicizing the epidemic, after some countries decided to impose new entry requirements on travelers from China.

"China always believes that for all countries, COVID response measures need to be fact-based, science-based, and proportionate," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press conference.

Measures should not target any specific country and remarks and actions that politicize the epidemic should be avoided, Mao said.

"Normal people-to-people exchange and work together for an early victory over the pandemic" should be jointly safeguarded, she stressed.

Countries including the United States, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and France have asked travelers from China to submit negative PCR tests before departure or arrival, citing a "lack of information" from Beijing on the epidemic situation.

"Since COVID began, China has shared information and data with the international community in an open and transparent manner," Mao said in response to recent statements by World Health Organization’s Emergency Director Michael Ryan that the organization does not have "complete data" from China.

"Preliminary figures show that since COVID was first reported, the two sides have had over 60 technical exchanges on COVID containment, treatment, vaccine research and development, and origins-tracing," she confirmed.

"On January 3, 2023, China, at the invitation of the WHO, sent experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to a meeting of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution, where we provided a comprehensive update on the recent developments and COVID variants in China," Mao pointed out.
 
"The WHO has noted on many occasions that the technical meetings between China and the WHO have gone smoothly and produced positive results. The information and data that China shared helped scientists from all countries to learn about the evolution of the virus in China and strengthened the global science community’s confidence in China’s COVID response," she noted.
 
With regard to the development of the disease in China, Mao said, that in accordance with a WHO release on January 4, "the genome data of the virus provided by China’s National Health Commission shows that the predominant variant in China is in line with the genome sequence from travelers from China infected with the virus submitted by other countries, and no new variant or mutation of known significance was noted."

She also said that China’s Covid situation is under control, and she hoped that "the WHO Secretariat will take a science-based, objective and just position and play a positive role in addressing the pandemic globally."