Funviralpark The US will require negative Covid-19 tests for passengers traveling from China as countries rush to impose restrictions after cases spike in Beijing’s abrupt end to its zero Covid containment policy. Stated.
Washington’s move on Wednesday comes just hours after Italy said it would test all passengers arriving from China on flights for the virus, making it the first Western country to set new rules following a surge in infections. rice field.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will require travelers boarding flights from China, Hong Kong and Macau to the United States after January 5 to prove they have tested negative for Covid-19 or have recovered from previous infections. said there is This requirement also applies to passengers arriving in the United States via a third country, and passengers connecting to other destinations via the United States.
The new measures are aimed at “slowing the spread” of the virus in the United States following its surge in China, due to the “lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genome sequence data reported from Beijing.” It’s being done, the CDC said. in a statement.
We reached out to the Chinese embassy in the United States for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Italy’s Health Minister Oraggio Schiracci said on Wednesday that Rome’s new restrictions are “essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible subspecies of the virus in order to protect the Italian public”.
After Wednesday night’s ministerial meeting, Schillacci urged the EU to impose bloc-wide testing requirements, and said Italy was sending a letter to the European Commission to request it.
“Many Chinese passengers come to Italy from the Schengen countries,” he said, referring to the block’s free travel area. “It is clear and important to involve European countries in this initiative.”
Italy’s decision to require testing of all passengers arriving from China comes after high rates of Covid infections were detected among passengers on two post-Christmas flights from China that landed at Milan’s Malpensa airport. was decided.
A provincial health official in the Lombardy region told reporters that 38% tested positive on one flight with 92 passengers, and 52% tested positive on a second flight with 120 passengers. said to have shown
Italy is desperate to avoid a repeat of March 2020, when it became the first European country to face a severe virus outbreak.
Some Asian countries, including Japan and India, are also anticipating a wave of Chinese visitors after President Xi Jinping’s government scrapped the remnants of its near-long-term zero-Covid regime shut down from the world. imposes new inspection requirements on 3 years.
China is being hit by an unprecedented wave of viruses, infecting tens of millions of people every day. At the same time, the end of zero COVID-19 has boosted demand for international travel since Beijing announced on Boxing Day that it would lift many measures from 8 January. Percentage of Tuesday compared to the previous day.
Olazio Schiraci, Italian Minister of Health © Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
There are calls for other countries to impose restrictions as well. Jürgen Hart, the spokesman for foreign affairs of Germany’s opposition Christian Democrats, called for a moratorium on all flights from China to Germany on Wednesday.
“The exploding Covid numbers in China are threatening the whole world with a new wave of infections,” he told media group RND. The flight connection should be resumed only after
German health ministry spokesman Sebastian Gülde said the authorities were “watching the situation in China very closely.” “But so far, there is no indication that more dangerous mutations are emerging from this outbreak.” That means there is no reason to declare China a virus mutation area, and travel restrictions for people arriving from that country will continue. become necessary.
The UK also said it was not considering any restrictions on travelers arriving from China.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi (Rome), Guy Chazan (Berlin) and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe (London)
