Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that the recent increase in respiratory diseases in China is a common problem for all countries and that Chinese authorities are controlling it effectively. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked China to provide detailed information on the increase in respiratory diseases and pneumonia cases reported in children. However, a WHO official on Monday said the infection rate in China was not as high as before the COVID-19 pandemic and reiterated that no new or unusual pathogens had been detected in the cases. recently. “Recently, we have observed several outbreaks of influenza in children in some regions of China. In fact, this is a very common phenomenon in many countries and in China, which has been effectively controlled,” Mr. Wang told reporters at the United Nations in New York, where he chairs the United Nations. chaired a session of the United Nations Security Council on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
China’s interaction with the international community will not be affected by any factors, and we will welcome more visits from friends from around the world, he said. Additionally, Taiwan’s Ministry of Health on Thursday urged the elderly, young children, and people with poor immunity to avoid traveling to China due to a recent increase in respiratory illnesses in the country, a move that some experts say is ineffective in managing public health risks. Taiwan has been wary of outbreaks in its giant neighbor since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak began in China and killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2002-2003. China, whose government claims to rule Taiwan democratically, initially tried to cover up the epidemic.
In a statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Taiwan’s Ministry of Health said that due to the increase in respiratory diseases in China, the elderly, young children, and people with poor immunity should not travel. travel to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Hong Kong. Macau unless necessary. If travel is necessary, people should get flu shots and COVID vaccines before coming to China, he added. Shu-Ti Chiou, an epidemiologist at the Foundation for Health and Sustainable Development in Taipei, said this advice will mislead the public into thinking they will not get respiratory diseases until they visit is not in China. Rajib Dasgupta, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, also said that “restricting travel in cases of respiratory infections is not an effective measure to prevent the spread”. Some public health researchers say the travel advisory is reasonable, saying Taiwan is also likely to see an increase in respiratory illnesses in winter and after restrictions pandemic restrictions are lifted. “They will be careful not to rush to travel abroad,” said Sung-il Cho, an epidemiologist at Seoul National University.
China and the WHO have faced questions about transparency in reporting the first Covid-19 cases that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. China’s Taiwan issue and the Hong Kong and Macau governments did not immediately respond to the requests.