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The United States is concerned that China’s Covid-19 outbreak will spawn new virus mutations, as the world’s most populous country continues to grapple with the consequences of loosening “Covid Zero” protocols that have kept the pandemic at bay.
“We want to see this addressed when it comes to the current outbreak in China,” Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, said in a briefing on Monday. We are aware that the virus has the ability to mutate and pose a hazard to everyone anywhere it spreads in the wild.
Chinese cities are seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases, raising concerns that the government may be concealing the true toll of the virus after years of claiming that the Communist Party handled the virus better than the West. On Monday, police and security guards pushed journalists away from a Beijing crematorium.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Price’s remarks.
Turning Covid-19
The outbreak has gotten worse after the government decided to eliminate a number of stringent regulations, such as isolation and quarantine rules, which had mainly protected China’s 1.4 billion citizens from the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The containment measures were held responsible for the deaths following a fire in the country’s western Xinjiang province, which sparked protests in late November in multiple Chinese cities, prompting China to reverse course on Covid-19.
As Covid-19 waves have spread to several nations throughout the world, health organisations, such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been on the lookout for additional varieties like delta or omicron. According to the CDC, recent changes “enable the virus to spread more readily or render it resistant to treatments or immunisations.”
The US hopes China can handle the current Covid-19 epidemic in part because any more setback to the Asian nation might further affect the global economy, according to Price. A delegation lead by Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing early in the new year.
The impact of the virus “is of concern to the rest of the world,” he said, given the size of China’s GDP. Being in a stronger position in relation to Covid is great for both China and the rest of the world.
