The US and Italy will require people arriving from China to test negative for Covid amid fears a rise in cases in the country could spark a new variant of Covid, but the UK government says it has no plans to follow suit.
Beginning Jan. 5, all passengers on flights to the US from China, Hong Kong and Macau aged two years or older must test negative two days before boarding, US health officials said.
Passengers who test positive more than 10 days before their flight may submit proof of recovery in lieu of a negative test result.
China has been imposing some of the world’s toughest Covid-related restrictions for more than two years, but reversed course dramatically last month after a rare surge in public protests, with restrictions now largely lifted ahead of a planned reopening next year.
But now Covid is largely spreading out of control across the country, with international experts suggesting it could infect millions of people every day.
US officials say a “lack of transparent data” from China has made it difficult to estimate the true extent of Covid’s spread, as the country reported no new deaths from Covid-19 last week despite overcrowded hospitals and crematoria.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has highlighted the risk of dangerous new variants of Covid due to China’s sheer mass of cases, citing “fewer tests and case reports” and “minimal sharing of viral genomics” in the country. that) may delay the identification of new options of concern as they emerge.”
It says that mandatory testing prior to arrival from China will “reduce the chance of a new variant of concern” that could avoid an immune response from vaccines or previous infections.
But the British government insisted on not imposing entry controls.
A UK government spokesman said: “There are no plans to re-introduce Covid-19 testing or additional requirements for arrivals in the UK.”
The UK’s Health Security Agency will continue to closely monitor the prevalence and spread of harmful variants and will analyze available international data, a government source said.
There are currently no Covid-related UK entry rules for people entering the UK, as all checks were canceled earlier this year during the bonfire of Boris Johnson’s Covid rules.
Italy became the first country in Europe to impose new restrictions on Wednesday, ordering Covid-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travelers arriving from China.
“This measure is necessary to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus and thus protect the Italian population,” said Italian Health Minister Horazio Squillaci.
Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, began testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai on Monday.
The first flight to test arrivals from China showed 35 of 62 passengers were infected with Covid, Lombardy’s health chief Guido Bertolaso said on Wednesday, while the second found 62 of 120 positives.
Japan said it would require a negative Covid-19 test on arrivals from mainland China from Dec. 31, and Taiwan will test arrivals from China from Jan. 1.
Although China says 90 percent of its population has been vaccinated against Covid-19, it has relied heavily on nine domestically developed Covid vaccines and has yet to approve the use of foreign mRNA vaccines.
Some of the vaccines used in China are significantly less effective than vaccines used in the West, and none have been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.