China COVID data shows no new variant but under-reports deaths, WHO says
Japan, the United States, Australia and several European states are among countries requiring such tests.
Many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year.
China has reported five or fewer deaths a day since the policy U-turn.
"That is totally ridiculous," 66-year-old Zhang, a Beijing resident who only gave his last name, said of the official toll.
"Four of my close relatives died. That's only from one family. I hope the government will be honest with the people and the rest of the world about what’s really happened here."
China's cabinet said on Wednesday it would step up medicine distribution and meet demand from medical institutions, nursing homes and rural areas, state media reported.
Beijing has hit back against some countries demanding visitors from China show pre-departure COVID tests, saying the rules were unreasonable and lacked a scientific basis.
Japan, the United States, Australia and several European states are among countries requiring such tests.
Willie Walsh, head of the world's biggest airline association IATA, criticised such "knee-jerk" measures that he said had not previously stopped the spread of a virus that had hammered airlines which are recovering from the pandemic.
China will stop requiring inbound travellers to quarantine from Jan. 8, but they must be tested before arrival.
China reported five new COVID deaths for Tuesday, bringing the official death toll to 5,258, very low by global standards.
British-based health data firm Airfinity has estimated about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID.
Patients at Shanghai's Zhongshan hospital, many of them elderly, were crammed in halls on Tuesday between makeshift beds with people on oxygen ventilators and intravenous drips.
A Reuters witness counted seven hearses in the parking lot of Shanghai's Tongji hospital on Wednesday. Workers were seen carrying at least 18 yellow bags used to move bodies.
China's $17 trillion economy has grown at its slowest in nearly half a century due to COVID disruptions.
But the yuan was at a four-month high against the dollar on Wednesday after Finance Minister Liu Kun promised to step up fiscal expansion. The central bank has also flagged support.
