Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China’s embassy in Seoul said on Tuesday it has stopped issuing short-term visas for visitors from South Korea, the first retaliatory move against countries imposing COVID-19 curbs on travellers from China.
No visas for visitors from South Korea
In the first such move, China’s embassy has suspended short-term visas for visitors from the country. The announcement comes a day after a phone call between South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang where the curbs were raised.
According to Reuters, a summary by Health Times, a publication managed by People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, said that infections have been declining in the capital Beijing and several Chinese provinces. One official said nearly all the 100 million people in Henan province had already been infected.
The covid-19 virus has spread freely in China since a policy U-turn in early December after protests against a “zero-covid” regime ruthlessly enforced for three years. China reopened its borders on Sunday, removing the last significant restrictions.
With the covid-19 virus let loose, China has stopped publishing daily infection tallies and has been reporting five or fewer deaths a day since the policy U-turn, figures that the World Health Organisation has disputed.
Many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year.
On Tuesday, a Health Times compilation of reports from local government officials and health experts across the country suggested the COVID wave might have lost its peak in many regions.
