China called the mounting international restrictions on travellers from its territory "unacceptable" on Tuesday after more than a dozen countries placed fresh Covid curbs on visitors from the world's most populous nation.

The United States, Canada, Japan and France are among the countries insisting all travellers from China provide negative Covid tests before arrival, as concerns grow over a surge in cases.

China's steep rise in infections comes after Beijing abruptly lifted years of hardline restrictions last month, with hospitals and crematoriums quickly overwhelmed.

But Beijing has pushed ahead with a long-awaited reopening, last week announcing an end to mandatory quarantines on arrival in a move that prompted Chinese people to plan trips abroad.

"Some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting China," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing.

"This lacks scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable," she added, warning China could "take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity".

The United States replied that it had taken action in response to the "lack of adequate and transparent" data from China and concerns that the heavy caseload could give birth to new variants.

"This is an approach that is based solely and exclusively on science," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.

Asked about China's reaction, France's Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the new rules.

"I think we're performing our duty in asking for tests," Borne told franceinfo radio.

"We will continue to do it."

The rules imposed affect all travellers coming from China -- not just Chinese nationals -- while Beijing continues to restrict inbound visitors and not issue visas for tourists or international students.

China has only recorded 22 Covid deaths since December and has dramatically narrowed the criteria for classifying such deaths -- meaning that Beijing's own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality.

- Shanghai overwhelmed -

As health workers nationwide battle a surge in cases, a senior doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals said 70 percent of the megacity's population may now have been infected with Covid-19, state media reported Tuesday.

Chen Erzhen, vice president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai's Covid expert advisory panel, estimated that the majority of the city's 25 million people may have been infected.

"Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 percent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May)," he told Dajiangdong Studio, owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Shanghai suffered a grueling two-month lockdown from April, during which more than 600,000 residents were infected and many were hauled to mass quarantine centres.

But now the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the city.

In other major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou, Chinese health officials have suggested that the wave has already peaked.

In neighbouring Zhejiang province, disease control authorities said Tuesday that there had been one million new Covid infections in recent days and that the province was entering a peak plateau.

Chen added that his Shanghai hospital was seeing 1,600 emergency admissions daily -- double the number prior to restrictions being lifted -- with 80 percent of them Covid patients.

"More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day," he was quoted as saying, adding that around half of emergency admissions were vulnerable people aged over 65.

At Tongren Hospital in downtown Shanghai, AFP reporters saw patients receiving emergency medical attention outside the entrance of the overcrowded emergency ward on Tuesday.

The corridors overflowed with dozens of elderly patients lying on beds crammed together, hooked up to IV drips.

At another hospital, AFP witnessed an exchange between a woman and an older man, both jostling for a drip.

"I was here first," she said. "I'm here to get a needle too."

- 'Enormous challenge' -

Chinese officials are now readying for a virus wave to hit the country's under-resourced rural interior, as millions of people prepare to travel to their hometowns for the weeklong Lunar New Year public holiday beginning January 21.

National Health Commission official Jiao Yahui admitted that dealing with the expected surge in rural areas would be an "enormous challenge".

"What we are most worried about is in the past three years nobody has returned home for Lunar New Year but they finally can this year," Jiao told state broadcaster CCTV on Monday.

"As a result, there may be a retaliatory surge of urban residents into the countryside to visit their relatives, so we are even more worried about the rural epidemic."

Austria to monitor wastewater of flights from China
Vienna (AFP) Jan 3, 2023 - Austria will start monitoring wastewater from aircraft from China and in top Chinese tourist attractions as Europe mulls restrictions for those from the Covid-19 hit country, the government said Tuesday.

As Beijing has decided to lift its "zero Covid" policy, the European Union fears a sudden influx of passengers from China could bring Covid variants that may be able to evade current vaccines.

"Starting next week, Austria will examine samples from the wastewater from aircraft from China," Austria's health ministry said in a statement.

It added wastewater from the sewage plant of the picturesque village of Hallstatt -- a top Chinese tourist destination -- would also be analysed.

This is in addition to wastewater in the cities of Vienna and Salzburg, which is already being monitored as part of a national programme launched at the beginning of last year.

"With this, some places frequently visited by tourists from China are regularly examined," the ministry said.

"This makes it possible to discover new virus variants, even if visitors from China have not entered the country with direct flights."

The European Commission said on Tuesday that an "overwhelming majority" of the EU's 27 member countries wanted passengers coming from China to be systematically tested for Covid before departure.

The consensus recommendation emerged from a meeting of EU health ministry officials held Tuesday in Brussels.

A crisis meeting to be held Wednesday on the issue will decide what coordinated measures will be applied across the bloc.

EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the officials also agreed to recommend stepped-up monitoring of wastewater from flights and at airports to detect traces of Covid, and for member states to boost surveillance.

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