Restart mass tourism | DN

The number of registered corona infections in the world has exceeded 35 million and is increasing by more than 300,000 cases daily. The World Health Organization believes that the real number is 20 times higher. Ten countries in East Asia have almost no local infection.

– Definitely a risk

Chinese markets are closed in connection with the National Day and “Golden Week” celebrations. This is a week-long vacation where they are encouraged to travel and shop. The corona pandemic has long been history in China, the original epicenter.

In the first four days of the week, 425 million Chinese traveled domestically, according to official statistics. This is around 20 percent less than a year ago, but significantly better than previously feared.

– Without a doubt, it is a risk to let mass tourism start again. In many ways, this is also an early exercise in what the rest of the world will have to go through when the global travel business starts up again next year, says associate professor Nicholas Thomas, who specializes in health security at the City University of Hong Kong, to Bloomberg.

Almost all restrictions on domestic travel have been removed. The last local corona infection was confirmed in mid-August. The nationwide hazard level has been reduced to “low risk”, which corresponds to the yellow hazard level.

– More than six weeks have passed without a single local case of infection being reported. This means that the areas where people are generally located are virus-free. The probability of meeting an infected person without symptoms is very low, almost negligible, said last week chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Institute of Public Health.

– Not part of a conspiracy

In Europe and the United States, there is an increase in the number of cases. The infection has broken out in India after a shutdown this spring. Also in Myanmar (formerly Burma) there is a new wave of infection. Indonesia and the Philippines do not have the pandemic under control.

About ten countries in Asia have almost no local infection. There has long been skepticism about official statistics from China and other Asian countries. The few cases that are reported daily come from residents who have returned.

Former CEO of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Scott Gottlieb points to Asian countries bordering the Pacific (Pacific RIM) as a role model for the rest of the world.

– People say China is lying about the couple dozen cases they report on a daily basis. I don’t think they are lying. The entire region is not part of a conspiracy, he tells CNBC.

Gottlieb believes that countries like the United States do not have to accept more than 50,000 new cases of infection a day.

– We have to sacrifice something

In Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, a total of 24,037 new corona cases were recorded, half of the daily infection in the United States in the same period. Most of these are due to outbreaks in Japan in early September.

– It seems that in Western democracies, bandages have become part of the political debate about individual freedom, and we simply cannot use them. People talk about the importance of reopening schools and then oppose bandages, says the former FDA director.

It considers that it is not connected when there is resistance to closed bar bandages, at the same time that the spread of the coronavirus must be stopped.

– We have to sacrifice something, says the former director of the FDA, who among other things is on the board of directors of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.