The W.H.O. had requested detailed information about a reported surge in respiratory illnesses in children in China. Chinese data suggested the surge was caused by known bacteria and viruses.The World Health Organization said that China had shared data about a recent surge in respiratory illnesses in children, one day after the agency said it was seeking information about the possibility of undiagnosed pneumonia cases there.The Chinese data indicated “no detection of any unusual or novel pathogens,” according to a W.H.O. statement on Thursday. The data, which included laboratory results from infected children, indicated that the rise in cases was a result of known viruses and bacteria, such as influenza and mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes usually mild illness.Hospital admissions of children had increased since May, as had outpatient visits, but hospitals were able to handle the increase, China told the global health agency.The W.H.O. requested information after Chinese news reports, and social media posts, indicated a notable surge in sick children in recent weeks. Parents reported long lines, sometimes of eight hours or more, at children’s hospitals. China’s National Health Commission acknowledged the reports of overcrowding.Families crowded the waiting room and registration area of Capital Institute of Pediatrics, a hospital in Beijing, with respiratory illnesses in children increasing in the country.By The New York TimesSome of those reports also caught the attention this week of members of ProMED, a disease tracking site run by the International Society for Infectious Diseases that health officials monitor for early warnings of potential emerging diseases.China’s transparency in reporting outbreaks has been the subject of intense global scrutiny, after it covered up early cases of both the SARS virus in 2003 and the virus that led to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The W.H.O. early this year rebuked Chinese officials for withholding data that the agency said could shed light on the coronavirus’s origins.The W.H.O. issued its formal request for data one day after a ProMED member shared a news report from Taiwan about an uptick in sick children in Beijing and Liaoning, a northeastern Chinese province. Chinese officials had already publicly acknowledged an increase in respiratory diseases among children, but the W.H.O. said it was unclear at the time whether that increase was caused by known pathogens.“A key purpose was to identify whether there have been ‘clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia’ in Beijing and Liaoning, as referred to in media reports,” the W.H.O. statement said.The W.H.O. said the increased infections in China were earlier in the season than historically expected but “not unexpected,” given that this was the first winter since China had lifted the stringent coronavirus restrictions it imposed in 2020. Other countries experienced similar leaps in other illnesses after lifting their Covid controls.

From Jan. 8, visitors will be required to show only a negative P.C.R. test taken within 48 hours. The restrictions had cut the country off from the rest of the world for nearly three years.China on Monday announced that travelers from overseas would no longer be required to enter quarantine upon arrival, in one of the country’s most significant steps toward reopening since the coronavirus pandemic began.From Jan. 8, incoming travelers will be required to show only a negative polymerase chain reaction, or P.C.R., test within 48 hours before departure, China’s National Health Commission said. Limitations on the number of incoming flights will also be eased.The travel restrictions had isolated the world’s most populous country for nearly three years. Foreigners were essentially barred from entering China in 2020, and even when they were allowed back in months later, it was generally only for business or family reunions.Even some Chinese nationals were unable to return home initially, and travelers allowed to enter were required to undergo extensive health screening and quarantine at their own expense — sometimes for as long as two months.The announcement on Monday was the latest reversal in China’s “zero Covid” approach to the virus, which for years saw Beijing seek to eliminate infections. But the policy, which involved harsh and prolonged lockdowns of hundreds of millions of people, crushed the economy and stirred public discontent.Understand the Situation in ChinaThe Communist Party cast aside restrictive “zero Covid” policy, which set off mass protests that were a rare challenge to the Communist leadership.Medicine Shortages: As Covid rips through parts of China, millions are struggling to find treatment — from the most basic cold remedies to take at home to more powerful antivirals for patients in hospitals.Traumatized and Deflated: Gripped with grief and anxiety, many in China want a national reckoning over the hard-line Covid policy. Holding the government accountable may be a quixotic quest.A Cloudy Picture: Despite Beijing’s assurances that the situation is under control, data on infections has become more opaque amid loosened pandemic constraints.In Beijing: As Covid sweeps across the Chinese capital, Beijing looks like a city in the throes of a lockdown — this time, self-imposed by residents.In November, after a fire led to the deaths of 10 people in the Xinjiang region, with many people suspecting that a Covid lockdown had hampered rescue efforts, protests erupted across the country. It was one of the boldest and most widespread outbreaks of dissent in decades. Within days, the government began loosening restrictions.The easing of travel restrictions “basically signals the final end of zero Covid,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. Though China had relaxed many of its zero-Covid domestic policies this month — scrapping regular mandatory tests for urban residents and allowing home quarantine for the infected, for example — it had held on to its international limitations.The new measures do not amount to China’s throwing open its borders, however. Many details remained unclear. The government has not said when it will resume issuing tourist visas — all such visas that were valid at the start of the pandemic have been canceled. Officials said that they would “further optimize” the ability of foreigners to apply for visas for business, study or family reunions, without offering specifics.Chinese officials also did not say how many flights would be allowed to enter the country. In November, the number of international flights to China was 6 percent of what it was in 2019, according to the flight tracker VariFlight. Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport in Fujian Province this month. It was unclear just how soon international travelers would be willing to visit China.Mark R Cristino/EPA, via ShutterstockChina will also allow its citizens to resume traveling abroad for leisure in an “orderly” fashion, officials said. During the pandemic, the government stopped issuing or renewing Chinese nationals’ passports except in limited circumstances, and in May it said it would “strictly restrict nonessential exit activities.”The end to the international Covid quarantine was part of a broader announcement on Monday that China would downgrade its classification of the coronavirus. Previously, the government treated Covid-19 as a Category A infectious disease, on par with cholera or the bubonic plague. Under that categorization, officials had to put in place extensive restrictions to control the spread, including lockdowns and quarantines. Going forward, Covid will be treated as a Category B disease, which includes AIDS and bird flu.That change will further formalize China’s shift away from zero Covid domestically, Dr. Huang said. While the earlier easing of restrictions had left local officials some leeway to decide how fast to reopen, Beijing was now signaling to officials nationwide that they should prioritize reviving the economy over disease control, he said.It was unclear, however, just how soon international travelers would be willing to visit China, and how much the economy would benefit from it. The recent loosening of restrictions has led to an explosion in infections. Many older Chinese are not vaccinated or have received only two shots. The number of infections and deaths is also unclear, as mass testing in the country has ended and China counts Covid deaths differently from most of the rest of the world. But reports of overwhelmed hospitals and funeral homes are widespread.Some social media users celebrated the fact that Chinese students studying overseas would be able to return more easily to visit their families.Mark R Cristino/EPA, via ShutterstockAt a news conference on Sunday, an official in Zhejiang Province, home to about 5 percent of China’s population, estimated that there were more than one million new Covid cases a day there.Dr. Huang said that while China had pursued zero Covid for too long, he was now worried that policymakers had swung too quickly in the opposite direction.“I’m afraid the mitigation strategy that is supposed to be focusing on the elderly and the vulnerable will be relegated to the back burner,” he said.The speed, and shock, of China’s Covid pivot was reflected on its social media platforms, where users greeted the news of the rollback on Monday with a mix of disbelief and elation. Some celebrated the fact that Chinese students studying overseas would be able to return more easily to visit their families. In the minutes after the announcement, Chinese news media reported, searches for international plane tickets on one travel platform soared.Others said, however, that they could not bring themselves to be happy about the changes, given the scale of China’s outbreak and deaths. Others noted that less than one month earlier, huge swaths of cities, including Beijing, had been under lockdown.Claire Fu

Unmarried mothers are often denied government benefits. A debate over the policy is being propelled by a declining birthrate and a new generation of independent Chinese women.For a few glorious weeks, Zou Xiaoqi, a single mother in Shanghai, felt accepted by her government.After giving birth in 2017, Ms. Zou, a financial worker, went to court to challenge Shanghai’s policy of giving maternity benefits to married women only. She had little success, losing a lawsuit and two appeals. Then, earlier this year, the city suddenly dropped its marriage requirement. In March, a jubilant Ms. Zou received a benefits check in her bank account.She had barely begun celebrating when the government reinstated the policy just weeks later. Unmarried women were once again ineligible to receive government payments for medical care and paid leave.“I always knew there was this possibility,” Ms. Zou, 45, said. “If they make me give the money back, I guess I’ll give it back.”The flip-flop by the Shanghai authorities reflects a broader reckoning in China about longstanding attitudes toward family and gender.Chinese law does not explicitly prohibit single women from giving birth. But official family planning policies mention only married couples, and local officials have long provided benefits based on those provisions. Only Guangdong Province, which borders Hong Kong, allows unmarried women to apply for maternity insurance. In many places, women still face fines or other penalties for giving birth outside of marriage.But as China’s birthrate has plummeted in recent years and a new generation of women embraces feminist ideals, those traditional values have come under increasing pressure. Now, a small but determined group of women is calling for guaranteed maternity benefits, regardless of marital status — and, more broadly, for recognition of their right to make their own reproductive decisions.Still, the about-face in Shanghai makes clear the challenges for feminists in China, where women face deep-rooted discrimination and a government suspicious of activism.It also demonstrates the authorities’ reluctance to relinquish decades of control over family planning, even in the face of demographic pressures. The ruling Communist Party announced on Monday that it would end its two-child policy, allowing couples to have three children, in hopes of lifting a sagging birthrate. But single mothers remain unrecognized.“There has never been a policy change,” a worker at Shanghai’s maternity insurance hotline said when reached by phone. “Single mothers have never met the requirements. ”Zou Xiaoqi, a single mother from Shanghai, sued the city to get maternity benefits.Zou Xiaoqi, via Associated PressMs. Zou, who found out she was pregnant after breaking up with her boyfriend, said she would continue fighting for recognition even though she did not need the money.“This is about the right to choose,” she said. Currently, when an unmarried woman gets pregnant, “you can either get married or have an abortion. Why not give people the right of a third choice?” As education levels have risen in recent years, more Chinese women have rejected marriage, childbirth or both. Only 8.1 million couples got married in 2020, according to government statistics, the lowest number since 2003. With the rejection of marriage has come heightened acknowledgment of single mothers. There are no official statistics on single mothers, but a 2018 report by the state-backed All-China Women’s Federation estimated there would be at least 19.4 million single mothers in 2020. The figure included widowed and divorced women.When Zhang A Lan, a 30-year-old filmmaker in central Hebei Province, was growing up, unmarried mothers were seen as sullied and sinful, she said. But by the time she decided two years ago to give birth without getting married, it was common to see people on social media challenging those old stereotypes.“Marriage is obviously not a prerequisite for childbirth,” said Ms. Zhang, who gave birth to a boy last year.Still, many women described a persistent gap between attitudes online and in reality.Many Chinese still worry about the financial burden and social stigma single mothers face, said Dong Xiaoying, a lawyer in Guangzhou who works to promote the rights of single mothers and gay couples. Lesbians are also often denied maternity rights, as China does not recognize same-sex unions.Ms. Dong, who herself wants to have a child outside of wedlock, said her parents find that decision incomprehensible.“It’s a little like coming out of the closet,” said Ms. Dong, 32. “There’s still a lot of pressure.”“Marriage is obviously not a prerequisite for childbirth,” said Zhang A Lan, pictured here with her son.The greatest obstacles, though, are official.By some measures, the authorities have begun to acknowledge the reproductive rights of single women. A representative to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, has for years submitted proposals on improving rights for unmarried women. While the authorities have closed down other feminist groups, those supporting unmarried mothers have largely evaded scrutiny.The authorities’ lighter touch may be, at least in part, because the women’s goals dovetail with national priorities.China’s birthrate has plummeted in recent years, after the decades-long one-child policy sharply reduced the number of women of childbearing age. Recognizing the threat to economic growth, the government has begun urging women to have more children; on Monday, it announced it would allow couples to have three children. The government’s latest Five Year Plan, released last year, promised more “inclusive” birth policies, sparking hopes for recognition of unwed mothers.One state-owned outlet was explicit in a recent headline about the original loosening of the policy in Shanghai: “More Chinese cities offer maternity insurance to unmarried mothers amid demographic crisis.”But the apparent support only goes so far, Ms. Dong said. Far from promoting women’s empowerment, the authorities recently have sought to push women out of the work force and back into traditional gender roles — the opposite of what would make single motherhood possible. “From a governance perspective, they don’t actually want to entirely open up,” she said.The National Health Commission this year emphasized that family planning is the responsibility of “husbands and wives together.” In January, the commission rejected a proposal to open egg freezing to single women, citing ethical and health concerns.Overt rejection of gender norms can still elicit reprisals. Last month, Douban, a social media site, shut down several popular forums where women discussed their desire not to marry or have children. Site moderators accused the groups of “extremism,” according to group administrators.Teresa Xu filed a lawsuit challenging China’s ban on egg freezing for single women.Yan Cong for The New York TimesShanghai’s about-face was the clearest example of the authorities’ mixed messaging on the reproductive rights of unmarried women.When the city appeared to expand maternity benefits earlier this year, officials never explicitly mentioned unmarried women. Their announcement said only that a “family planning review,” which required a marriage certificate, would no longer be carried out.But in April, women once again found themselves being asked for their marriage certificates when applying online.“The local administrators don’t want to take responsibility,” Ms. Dong said. “No higher national authority has said these family planning rules can be relaxed, so they don’t dare to be the ones to open this window.”Many women hope that pressure from an increasingly vocal public will make such regulations untenable.Teresa Xu, 32, saw that shift firsthand in 2019, when she filed a lawsuit challenging China’s ban on egg freezing for single women. At first, the judge treated her like a “naïve little girl,” she said. But as her case gained support on social media, officials became more respectful.Even so, her case is still pending, and officials have not given her an update in over a year. Ms. Xu said she was confident in the long run.“There’s no way to predict what they’ll do in the next two or three years,” she said. “But I believe there are some things that there’s no way to deny, when it comes to society’s development and desires. There’s no way to reverse this trend.”Joy Dong

#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutNew Variants TrackerAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyCovid-19: U.S. Vaccination Pace Increases to 2 Million Doses a DayChina subjects some travelers to anal swabs, angering foreign governments.March 5, 2021, 2:39 a.m. ETMarch 5, 2021, 2:39 a.m. ETThe arrivals hall at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in January.Credit…Aly Song/ReutersChina is requiring some travelers arriving from overseas to receive an invasive anal swab test as part of its coronavirus containment measures, a move that has outraged and shocked several foreign governments.Japanese officials said on Monday that they had formally asked China to exempt Japanese citizens from the test, adding that some who had received it complained of “psychological distress.” And the United States State Department last moth said it had registered a protest with the Chinese government after some of its diplomats were forced to undergo anal swabs, though Chinese officials denied that.It is not clear how many such swabs have been administered or who is subject to them. Chinese state media has acknowledged that some arrivals to cities including Beijing and Shanghai are required to take the tests, though the reports said the requirements might vary depending on whether the travelers were deemed to be high-risk.Chinese experts have suggested that traces of the virus may survive longer in the anus than in the respiratory tract and that samples of the former may prevent false negatives. China has imposed some of the strictest containment measures in the world, including barring most foreign arrivals, and has largely suppressed the epidemic.Lu Hongzhou, an infectious disease specialist at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the state-controlled Global Times tabloid that nasal or throat swabs could cause “uncomfortable reactions,” leading to subpar samples. He acknowledged that fecal samples could replace anal swabs, to prevent similar discomfort.But other experts — including in China — have questioned the need for anal samples. The Global Times quoted another expert, Yang Zhanqiu, as saying that nasal and throat swabs are still the most effective because the virus is contracted through the respiratory tract.Benjamin Cowling, a public health professor at the University of Hong Kong, said in an interview that even if someone did test positive on an anal swab but not a respiratory one, he or she would likely not be very contagious.“The value of detecting people with the virus is to stop transmission,” Professor Cowling said. “If someone has got an infection but they’re not contagious to anyone else, we didn’t need to detect that person.”A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said this week that the government would make “science-based adjustments” to its containment policies.Professor Cowling said he did not know what the scientific rationale was behind the existing policies. “I presume there’s some evidence leading to this decision, but I haven’t seen that evidence,” he said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story