Chinese President Xi Jinping assured Saturday that "the light of hope is before us", as his country faces an explosion of Covid-19 cases after an abrupt lifting of health restrictions.

Three years after the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan (center), China put an end without notice on December 7 to its draconian policy known as “zero Covid”, after an increasingly massive protest movement.

Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by an onslaught of mostly elderly patients, crematoriums have been overwhelmed and many pharmacies have run out of fever medication.

“The prevention and control of the epidemic has entered a new phase.

We are still in a difficult moment,” but “the light of hope is ahead of us,” Xi Jinping said in a televised New Year's address.

Travel under conditions

This is the Beijing strongman's second comment on the outbreak this week.

On Monday, he called for measures to "effectively protect the lives of the population".

The country reported on Saturday more than 7,000 new positive cases and one additional death linked to Covid out of a population of 1.4 billion.

Largely understated figures that appear to be totally out of step with the reality on the ground.



Despite this epidemic rebound, the authorities will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in China on January 8 and allow Chinese people to travel abroad, after three years of frustration.

As a precaution, several European countries including France and Italy, as well as the United States and Japan have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers arriving from China.

“In the absence of complete information from China, it is understandable that countries take the measures they believe will protect their populations,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization.

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