The US stated it will require negative Covid-19 tests for air passengers travelling from China as international locations rushed to impose restrictions after the abrupt finish of Beijing’s zero-Covid containment coverage resulted in a surge in instances.
Washington’s transfer on Wednesday got here simply hours after Italy introduced it will take a look at all air passengers arriving from China for the virus, turning into the primary western nation to set new guidelines following the soar in infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that from January 5, travellers boarding flights to the US from China, Hong Kong and Macau would wish a negative Covid-19 take a look at or proof that they had recovered from a earlier an infection. The necessities additionally apply to passengers arriving within the US by way of a 3rd nation and to these connecting to different locations by means of the US.
The new measures are meant to “slow the spread” of the virus within the US following the surge in China and are being applied due to “the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from” Beijing, the CDC stated in an announcement.
The Chinese embassy within the US didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Orazio Schillaci, Italy’s well being minister, on Wednesday stated Rome’s new restrictions had been “essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population”.
Speaking after a cupboard assembly Wednesday night time, Schillaci urged the EU to impose a bloc-wide testing requirement and stated Italy had written to the European Commission to request one.
“Many Chinese passengers come to Italy from Schengen countries,” he stated, referring to the bloc’s free journey space. “It is obvious and important to involve European countries in the initiative.”
Italy’s determination to require testing on all passengers arriving from China adopted the detection of excessive charges of Covid infections amongst passengers on two post-Christmas flights that landed at Milan’s Malpensa airport from China.
On one flight of 92 passengers, 38 per cent examined constructive, whereas on a second flight of 120 passengers, 52 per cent examined constructive, a provincial well being official for the Lombardy area informed reporters.
Italy is determined to keep away from a repeat of March 2020, when it grew to become the primary European nation to face a severe outbreak of the virus that went on to comb internationally and kill tens of millions of individuals.
Some Asian international locations, together with Japan and India, have additionally imposed new testing necessities for Chinese arrivals, in anticipation of a wave of tourists after president Xi Jinping’s authorities scrapped what was left of the zero-Covid regime that closed it off from the world for virtually three years.
China is within the grip of an unprecedented wave of the virus, with tens of tens of millions of individuals being contaminated every day. At the identical time, the tip of zero- Covid has prompted a rise in demand for worldwide journey since Beijing stated on Boxing Day it will elevate many measures from January 8. Travel reserving website Trip.com stated Chinese outbound bookings had been up greater than 250 per cent on Tuesday in contrast with a day earlier.
There have been calls for different international locations to impose restrictions. Juergen Hardt, international affairs spokesman for Germany’s opposition Christian Democrats, on Wednesday demanded a suspension of all flights from China to Germany.
The “exploding Covid numbers in China threaten the whole world with a new wave of infections”, he informed media group RND. “Only when we’re sure that there’s no threat of a new, dangerous mutation out of China should we resume flight connections.”
Sebastian Gülde, spokesman for the German well being ministry, stated authorities had been “keeping a very close eye on the situation in China”. “But so far we have no indication that a more dangerous mutation is emerging from this outbreak.” That meant there was no purpose to declare China a virus variant space, which might entail journey restrictions on these arriving from the nation.
The UK additionally stated it was not contemplating restrictions for travellers arriving there from China.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome, Guy Chazan in Berlin and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London
