Mao Ning stated that “no country should politicise the pandemic or adopt discriminatory measures to affect typical people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.”
After some nations decided to impose new entry requirements on visitors from China, the Foreign Ministry called on all nations to adopt a science-based and objective approach when formulating COVID-19 response measures and to avoid politicising the pandemic on Thursday.
Speaking at a routine news conference, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said, “We always believe that all countries’ COVID response measures should be based on science and be proportionate.”
She stated that “no country should politicise the pandemic or adopt discriminatory measures to affect typical people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.”
Countries including the United States, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom have required travellers from China to provide negative COVID-19 tests before departure or arrival.
Mao stated that China has always shared information and data with the international community in an open, transparent, and responsible manner since COVID began, in response to recent claims made by a senior World Health Organization official regarding China’s provision of information to the international body.
According to incomplete statistics, China has conducted more than 60 technical exchanges with the WHO on topics such as COVID containment, treatment, vaccine research and development, and virus origins tracing since COVID-19 was first reported, according to Mao.
A meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution of the WHO was attended on Tuesday by researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. They discussed the COVID-19 situation and its variations in China during the meeting, according to Mao.
She added that China will continue to closely monitor the mutation of the virus in China and promptly release information. “The WHO has noted on numerous occasions that the information and data that China shared has helped scientists from all countries learn about the evolution of the virus in China,” she said.
Mao urged the WHO secretariat to maintain a scientific, impartial, and just position and to contribute positively as the world works together to address the pandemic’s challenge.
Mao stated that the most recent data provided by the National Health Commission regarding the progression of the illness in China demonstrated that neither a new variant nor a significant mutation have been discovered in China, and the BA.5.2 and BF.7 sub-strains of Omicron have remained as the two major strains in the country.
The spokeswoman urged Chinese nationals who intended to travel abroad to check their health status and the entry requirements of their intended countries beforehand to avoid having their travel plans derailed.