COVID: Chinese eye border reopening with both fear and joy

Travelling to and from China is set to become much easier in January 2023, with the government pledging to end quarantine requirements for inbound passengers and start processing passport applications. Many Chinese citizens are already booking international flights and planning family reunions. Others wonder if they can treat themselves with a trip for the upcoming Lunar New Year.

A Chinese citizen in Singapore called Li told DW that he had been away from China for more than 18 months. He now plans to go home for the Lunar New Year, January 22 — if the ticket prices start going down.

"Since my mom still lives in China, I will also try to get her a passport and apply for a visa for Singapore," he said. "Once she's here, we will make more longterm plans."

Wuhan resident says the sense of unease is back

However, not all Chinese citizens are thrilled about the government's decision to open the border. A Chinese citizen named Lin in Wuhan pointed to the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks, saying that it has brought back the kind of uncertainty that many Wuhan residents felt at the end of 2019.

"It's a sense of unease and exhaustion," he told DW. "The sense of helplessness comes from the fact that I'm witnessing the chaos predicted by experts happening in front of me but I don't know how to handle it. Many of us also feel like nothing can be worse than what's happening over the last few weeks."

The current COVID-19 surge, which started when China dropped its zero-COVID policy earlier this month, has left the country reeling. Pharmacies across the country are facing a serious shortage of fever medications, hospitals are hard-pressed to help new COVID patients, and crematoriums in several cities are struggling to cope with the large number of dead bodies arriving each day.

With millions of Chinese citizens preparing to travel across the country for the Lunar New Year, China's rural areas are racing to boost capacity at medical facilities. This includes ensuring  there are enough life support equipment and critical care beds, according to the state-run media outlet China Daily.

Hospital staff lead 'miserable' life

A Chinese citizen surnamed Wang told DW the Chinese authorities' sudden U-turn on zero-COVID, with no preparation, has left the population dealing with serious consequences.

"A doctor working at a hospital in Nanjing told me his hospital has less than 100 ventilators but they have to admit more than 500 patients with serious COVID-19 symptoms," she said. "Most medical staff also have to work very long hours and even if they have tested positive, they are still not allowed to take off from work. Life over the last few weeks have been miserable for many of them."

Another Chinese citizen named Wu, who lives in the northern city of Tianjin, told DW that most hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, and the surge was crowding out patients with other urgent issues.

"Two weeks ago, one of my elderly relatives fell down the stairs, but we couldn't get an ambulance to come and take him to the hospital," he said. "He passed away after finally being sent to the hospital by an ambulance hours later."

Despite the government's efforts to boost the capacity of medical facilities in rural areas, some experts fear another wave of deaths among the elderly.

 "The health care system in China's rural areas is staffed by doctors who rarely have full medical training," said Ruby Huang, a professor at the medical school at National Taiwan University. "This is nothing like a sophisticated health care system."

Countries impose restrictions on travelers from China 

While China is getting ready to allow its citizens to travel abroad, several other countries are introducing various limitations on travelers from China. The US, Japan, India, Italy, and Taiwan have all announced mandatory testing requirements for passengers from China. US public health officials also advises Americans to reconsider traveling to China, Hong Kong, or Macau.

Xi Chen, a professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health, told DW that the preventative measures may help slow transmissions to some extent, but the effect could end up being marginal.

"Scientific evidence has suggested that the specified 48-hour window for a COVID-19 test prior to departure isn't narrow enough to constitute effective, protective border policy," he said. "The execution of such targeted measures also requires extra caution, otherwise may risk fueling racism or xenophobia."

China: 'We keep nothing secret'

Moreover, since China stopped publishing its daily pandemic data and narrowed the definition of COVID-19 deaths last week, several countries have expressed concerns about the lack of transparency. The World Health Organization also said they need more information about the severity of the outbreak in China.

In response, Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist from China's Center for Disease Control, said on Thursday that Beijing has always shared the virus strains it has found in a timely manner. "We keep nothing secret. All work is shared with the world," he said.

Chen from Yale said while the general evolutionary trend of the virus is towards milder, more transmissible new variants, the world should remain vigilant.

Health officials in every country "should track genomic sequence data at ports of entry to monitor trends in circulating variants," he told DW.  "Lack of transparency in COVID cases and genome surveillance may risk skipping more deadly variants that circulate worldwide."

Edited by: Darko Janjevic