Beijing:  China’s President Xi Jinping on Saturday acknowledged that the current wave of COVID-19 sweeping across the country has “entered a new phase” and “tough challenges remain” as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked Beijing to provide more data about the coronavirus variants amid India and other countries ramping up measures to screen travellers from the Communist nation. “We have now entered a new phase of COVID-19 response where tough challenges remain,” Xi said in his New Year address to the nation, adding that it has “not been an easy journey” as the country has to face “unprecedented difficulties and challenges”.

Speaking on national television from behind a desk in a wood-paneled office, Xi said that China’s extraordinary efforts have helped it prevail over unprecedented difficulties.

“With extraordinary efforts, we have prevailed over unprecedented difficulties and challenges and it has not been an easy journey for anyone,” he said without providing much information about the dire situation prevailing in the country.