The easing of anti -Covid restrictions in China and the stop to quarantine which will come into effect on January 8, a few days before the Chinese New Year , the most important holiday of the year, when millions of people gather, risk turning into a global disaster. they will be traveling again to reunite with family and friends within the country or abroad after a three-year hiatus.

Already half an hour after the announcement, travel sites were stormed, with the concrete possibility of causing a wave of Covid in the rest of the world with a very high risk of new variants.

The Lombardy region was the first in Italy to request the molecular swab for passengers arriving from China to Malpensa. A banner on the airport website informs of the new provision which will be valid until 30 January. The prevention measure - currently not mandatory - also serves to ascertain the type of Covid variant of those arriving from the Asian country.

THE DATA – According to the British research company Airfinity, to date there are over a million new cases of Covid-19 in China and at least 5,000 deaths a day. And the situation is likely to get even worse.

INTERNATIONAL ALARM – Numerous measures have already been taken in other countries as well: in Japan , starting Friday, travelers from China will be forced to take a swab and the positives will have to undergo a 7-day quarantine. India , for its part, had already decided that those arriving from China, as well as from other countries, must show a negative test. Malaysia has imposed tracking and surveillance measures.

The United States , according to rumors reported by the Bloomberg agency, could impose measures similar to those decided by Japan and Malaysia. The same sources add that Washington would be concerned about the jump in cases in China and would have raised doubts about the transparency of Beijing's data on infections.

"DISASTROUS STRATEGY" - A "disastrous" Chinese strategy , with "one error after another", commented Walter Ricciardi , professor of hygiene at the Catholic University. «The Chinese vaccines, Cansino and Sinovac, have not been as effective as the western ones - he explains - If in the first phase they made a contribution, then they couldn't stand the wave of Omicron". Giving up now on closures is "another mistake - continues Ricciardi -. They probably thought that against Omicron they are insufficient. buy Western vaccines. They don't want to do it for political reasons". Then a hint of the dangerous new variants: "A more contagious variant of Omicron is difficult - explains Ricciardi - but the danger is that a more pathogenic one arises".

(Unioneonline/vl)

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