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The thermometers had not marked 15 degrees in Beijing for a long time. In addition, the sun and the cleanliness of the pollution layer accompany. A perfect combination to which we must add the proximity of a headline that the Chinese media have been looking for for days: "China defeats the coronavirus".

Today, for the first time since January 18, the country has woken up with less than 100 new cases of infection . City closures, strict quarantines and population movement controls have worked. From the Communist Party they boast of their effective measures and the sacrifice of their people. It is already a fact that other countries such as South Korea, Iran or Italy have many more infected every day . But as the outbreak slows in China, now the Asian giant is worried about another new focus: cases imported from other nations affected by the virus. That is, foreigners or Chinese residents in other countries that bring the Covid-19 in their suitcase. Even from Spain.

On Friday we met the particular case of a 70-year-old Chinese woman who took a plane from Madrid on March 1 and made a stop in Abu Dhabi. In Spain he had been since January 10 . Then he went to Beijing airport and took another plane to Shenzhen. Upon landing he had a fever. That marked the first temperature control still on the plane. Already in the hospital, when testing him, he tested positive .

From Madrid there are four airlines that fly daily with a stopover to Beijing: Aeroflot, Singapore Airlanlines, Emirates and Etihad. There are also flights to Shanghai. But the Chinese government does not yet force the 14-day quarantine to passengers arriving from Spain , as if they are in the two major metropolises of the country with those coming from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan.

This morning, the National Health Commission has announced that 25 new infections have occurred in Hubei Province, excluding 74 new Wuhan infections. And that all cases except one had been imported from abroad. The state newspaper Global Times reported yesterday that in Shanghai they had three cases imported from Iran. In total, this economic capital has 33 patients for Covid-19. A much lower figure if we compare it with those infected, for example, in Madrid (137).

On Thursday, in Beijing, the authorities counted eight new infected who had arrived from Italy . The same happened in Zhejiang Province with seven passengers who worked in the city of Bergamo and tested positive in Chinese lands. All of them had caught the virus in Europe, as none had stepped on Wuhan, the zero zone.

"Craving" to return home

The Chinese authorities are concerned about the "craving" that many of their nationals have to return to their homes due to the spread of the epidemic in the countries where they reside. As we could see a week ago at Incheon International Airport, in Seoul. Hundreds of Chinese citizens collapsed flights to cities like Qingdao or Beijing. There were hardly any places left. And the ticket prices had tripled. "My country has it under control thanks to strong measures and quarantines," said a Chinese worker in Seoul named Li Ho.

In South Korea they add more than 300 daily cases, which has increased the number of infected to more than 6,700. "Look at the latest data, now is when the rest of the world begins to know what the coronavirus is. Instead, we are going to recover," added another guy, Huang Li at the airport.

If we return to China, the figures of the National Health Commission suggest that, despite the slowdown with respect to new cases of infection, the Asian giant has more than 80,800 infected , more than 3,000 dead and more than 55,400 cured. Its containment measures have been repeatedly praised by the World Health Organization (WHO). "China has changed the course of the outbreak within the country. What was a rapid growth, stabilized and has begun to fall faster than one can expect. Hundreds of thousands of cases have been prevented in China thanks to this aggressive intervention "said Bruce Aylward, the team leader of 25 WHO experts who visited the city of Wuhan at the end of February.

This Thursday, the director of this organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, gave a touch of attention to some countries, although not to mention any in particular. "We are concerned that some countries are not taking the problem seriously enough or have decided that they cannot do anything," he said at a press conference.

Many nations already look at the example of how China has gone from being the main focus of the coronavirus to an example of containment. Although doubt always prevails in whether it is really necessary to take such drastic measures as China has done. Zhang Boli, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the expert group of the central government in Wuhan, predicts that in the world epicenter of the outbreak they are confident that by the end of this month they will definitely stop giving new cases of contagion. And that, at the end of April, the rest of the country can return to normal life. You can even go down the street without a mask.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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