Countries are imposing new COVID-19 measures on arriving travelers China when international travel resumes.
In EU, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, ItalyLatvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden have so far stepped up rules for travelers from China in response to the soaring cases.
While EU countries have so far failed to agree on a coordinated approach to the changing COVID-19 situation, the bloc is ‘strongly’ pushing for pre-departure testing requirements. Other measures recommended for flights arriving in the EU from China include wearing masks on board, increased cleaning of aircraft, vaccinating crew members, random arrivals testing, sequencing of positive tests, and monitoring wastewater at airports to detect infection and infection rates. new. variant.
Which European countries have imposed COVID-19 requirements for travel from China?
Italy is the first EU country to tighten restrictions, ordering COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travelers arriving from China, the health minister announced last month.
Spanish becoming the second European country to announce COVID restrictions on travelers from China, who must now provide a negative test result or proof of vaccination.
After initially saying there was no need to increase border controls, France has announced it will require a negative PCR or antigen test taken less than 48 hours before boarding for all travelers arriving from China starting January 5. Sweden, too, has now announced it will make negative tests mandatory for travelers arriving from China from January 7 and Dutch from 10 January.
The Mayor of Belgium also called for the reintroduction of COVID checks on tourists entering from China. The government announced on Monday that it would test wastewater from planes arriving from China for the new COVID variant as part of new measures against the spread of the coronavirus.
Cyprus will start requiring negative tests of passengers arriving from China from January 15.
That English has retracted its original statement that there were no plans to reinstate COVID-19 testing for those arriving from China. Starting January 5, a pre-departure negative COVID-19 test is required, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.
China has hit back at targeted entry restrictions saying they have no scientific basis and are unreasonable. Mao Ning, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said on Tuesday that his country “firmly opposes such practices” and threatened retribution.
Which other countries have imposed COVID restrictions on arrivals from China?
Elsewhere, Australia, Canada, IndiaIsrael, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, South Korea, Taiwan and the US have introduced additional COVID measures for arrivals from China.
After initially saying it would not reintroduce testing, Australia has announced that travelers arriving from China must submit a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours of departure starting January 5.
Air travelers to Canada from China must test negative for COVID-19 no more than two days before departure, Ottawa said.
India has mandated negative COVID-19 test reports for travelers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. Passengers from these countries will be quarantined if they show symptoms or test positive.
India detected a total of 11 new variants of COVID-19 in international travelers who arrived in the country between 24 December and 3 January, health ministry sources said. Of the 19,227 passengers who were tested for COVID-19 during the period, 124 tested positive.
Israel’s newly appointed Minister of Health Aryeh Deri has announced new COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers from China, according to the Times of Israel.
Malaysia has implemented additional tracking and surveillance measures. It will screen all incoming travelers for fever and test wastewater from planes arriving from China for COVID-19.
Morocco will impose a ban on people arriving from China from all countries starting January 3.
Qatar will require travelers arriving from China from January 3 to provide a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 48 hours of departure, state news agency QNA said.
Japan requires a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departure for travelers from China. The country is also now testing passengers on arrival, with those who test positive having to undergo a week of quarantine. Tokyo also plans to limit airlines increasing flights to China.
South Korea has introduced on-arrival PCR tests for people arriving from China. Starting January 5, countries will also require a negative test result within 48 hours or a rapid antigen test to be carried out within 24 hours of departure. Restrictions have also been placed on short-term visas for Chinese nationals.
PCR testing on arrival has been introduced for all passengers on direct flights from China to Taiwan, as well as by ship on two offshore islands.
The Philippines is also considering testing and increasing surveillance of symptomatic passengers arriving from China.
Southeast Asian countries treat Chinese travelers like any other.
Thailand requires foreigners whose next destination is a country requiring a negative pre-entry COVID-19 test – including China – to show they have health insurance that covers treatment for the disease.
Neither Malaysian nor Thailand is testing for the virus from airline wastewater.
US government officials have also stepped up controls, citing concerns about a “lack of transparent data”. Beijing. Starting January 5, all air passengers aged two years and over will require a negative test result no later than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau.
Why are countries worried about travelers coming from China?
Over the past few weeks, China has been rapidly relaxing its strict rules COVID rules in the midst of citizen unrest. The sudden policy change reportedly overwhelmed its health system as the spread of the virus went largely unchecked.
China, a nation of 1.4 billion people, reported three new COVID-related deaths for Tuesday, up from one on Monday. However, these figures are inconsistent with what funeral homes report, as well as with the experiences of much less populated countries after they have died. reopened.
“There is growing concern in the international community that is ongoing COVID-19 the spike in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, reported from the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” US officials said in December.
In Italy, Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, had started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai on December 26, and results showed nearly one in two passengers were infected.
What are the rules for people traveling to China?
China said in December it would lift quarantine requirements for incoming travelers starting from January 8. A negative PCR test is still required. It will also continue publishing Visa for residents to travel abroad.
It is a major step towards easing restrictions on its borders, which have been largely closed since 2020. The rules have been gradually relaxed in recent weeks to facilitate domestic and international travel.
Hong Kong also said it would dump most of the rest COVID restrictions.
Online searches for flights from China soared in December from very low levels, but residents and travel agent suggesting a return to normalcy will take several months, as caution prevails for now.
