Xi Jinping Emphasizes Blocking COVID-19 Reimportation... Zero New Cases Excluding Reimportation (Summary)

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed to do his best in epidemic prevention, citing the increasing risk of virus re-importation into China due to the global spread of COVID-19. China announced that there were no newly confirmed COVID-19 cases "within China" on this day, reporting only 34 cases of overseas re-importation.

According to the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, on the 19th, President Xi inspected the domestic and international COVID-19 prevention and economic situation at the previous day's meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and ordered strengthening of measures to block overseas re-importation.

He stated, "The risk of re-importation has increased due to the rapid global spread of COVID-19," and emphasized, "We must prevent the good trend of epidemic control, which was hard-earned, from reversing." Highlighting the need to strengthen international epidemic prevention cooperation, he said, "We must closely cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve countermeasures against importation risks and enhance exchange and cooperation on epidemic prevention with countries related to COVID-19 to provide maximum assistance."

Furthermore, he instructed, "Together with related countries, we must establish a perfect cooperative system for epidemic prevention strategies, share experiences in prevention and treatment, and promote joint research (including vaccines)," and ordered to "carry out the key task of blocking overseas re-importation of COVID-19."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also emphasized cooperative efforts to block the spread of COVID-19 during a phone call with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, saying, "There are no borders in epidemic prevention."

On this day, the National Health Commission of China (NHC) announced that for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of newly confirmed cases in Hubei Province was zero.

Although 34 new confirmed cases were added in China on the 18th, all were cases of re-importation from outside China rather than "within China." Among these, 21 cases were reported in Beijing, 9 in Guangdong Province, 2 in Shanghai, 1 in Heilongjiang Province, and 1 in Zhejiang Province, totaling 34 overseas re-imported COVID-19 cases. The cumulative number of overseas re-imported cases reached 189.

As overseas re-imported COVID-19 cases surged, China is responding by having some international flights landing at nearby cities instead of Beijing airport. Some international flights of Chinese airlines originally destined for Beijing Capital International Airport are first landing at surrounding airports such as Tianjin, Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province, Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, and Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In Shanghai, many international flights have been canceled. China Eastern Airlines canceled six North American routes and five European routes until the 29th of this month, citing the COVID-19 situation as the reason.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.