The United States hopes that China can address the current COVID-19 outbreak as the count of the virus is a global concern due to the size of the Chinese economy, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday. The US hopes China can control its current Covid-19 outbreak in part because any further setback to the Asian country could worsen the global economy, according to Price. A group lead by Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing early in the new year.
The toll of the virus is of concern to the rest of the world given the size of China’s GDP, given the size of China’s economy, Price told a daily briefing at the State Department, It’s not only good for China to be in a stronger position vis-a-vis COVID but it’s good for the rest of the world as well.u201d He added that anytime the virus is spreading it has the potential to mutate and pose a threat everywhere. We’ve seen that over the course of many different permutations of this virus and certainly another reason why we are so focused on helping countries around the world address COVID, he said.
Video Courtesy: Bloomberg Markets and Finance
After the government relaxed rigorous anti-virus controls, China recorded its first COVID-related deaths in weeks on Monday. However, there are growing concerns that the official total may not fully reflect the severity of the sickness that is ravaging urban areas. The two fatalities on Monday were the first confirmed by the National Health Commission (NHC) since December 3, just days before Beijing declared it was removing restrictions that had mostly kept the virus in control for three years but had sparked large-scale demonstrations last month.
The low mortality toll following the lifting of the limitations on December 7 is in contrast to what other nations have seen following similar actions. Officially China has suffered just 5,237 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, including the latest two fatalities, a tiny fraction of its 1.4 billion population.
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