The United States said it would require negative Covid-19 tests for air passengers traveling from China, as countries rushed to impose restrictions after the abrupt end to Beijing’s zero-Covid containment policy cause an increase in cases.
Washington’s move on Wednesday came just hours after Italy announced it would test all air passengers arriving from China for the virus, becoming the first Western country to introduce new rules in response to the jump in infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that starting Jan. 5, travelers boarding flights to the United States from China, Hong Kong and Macau would need a negative Covid test or proof that they had recovered from a previous infection. The requirements also apply to passengers arriving in the US via a third country and those connecting to other destinations via the US.
The measures are intended to “slow the spread” of the virus in the United States after the surge in China and are being implemented due to “the lack of adequate and transparent viral genomic sequence and epidemiological data being reported from from Beijing,” the CDC said in a statement.
The Chinese embassy in the US did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Orazio Schillaci, Italy’s health minister, said on Wednesday that Rome’s restrictions were “essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus to protect the Italian population”.
Orazio Schillaci, Minister of Health of Italy © Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Schillaci urged the EU to impose a bloc-wide testing requirement, which he said Italy had written to the European Commission to request.
“Many Chinese passengers come to Italy from the Schengen countries,” he said, referring to the bloc’s free travel area. “It is obvious and important to involve European countries in the initiative.”
Italy’s decision to require testing of all passengers arriving from China followed the detection of high rates of Covid infections among passengers on two post-Christmas flights that landed at Malpensa airport in Milan from China.
On one flight of 92 passengers, 38 percent tested positive, while on the second flight of 120 passengers, 52 percent tested positive, a health official from the Lombardy region told reporters.
Italy is desperate to avoid a repeat of March 2020, when it became the first European country to deal with a serious outbreak of the virus that swept the world and killed millions.
Some Asian countries, including Japan and India, have also imposed new testing requirements for Chinese arrivals, anticipating a surge of visitors after President Xi Jinping’s government scrapped what was left of the zero-Covid regime which closed him off to the world for almost three years. Japan will limit arrivals from China, Hong Kong and Macau to four designated airports in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya starting Friday.
China is undergoing an unprecedented wave of viruses, with tens of millions of people infected daily. At the same time, the end of zero-Covid has led to a surge in demand for international travel since Beijing said on Christmas Day that it would lift many measures from January 8. Travel booking site Trip.com said Chinese outbound bookings rose more than 250. percent on Tuesday compared with a day earlier.
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There have been calls for other countries to impose restrictions. Jürgen Hardt, foreign affairs spokesman for Germany’s Christian Democratic opposition, on Wednesday demanded the suspension of all flights from China to Germany.
China’s “explosive Covid numbers threaten the entire world with a new wave of infections,” he told the RND media group. “Only when we are sure there is no threat of a new and dangerous mutation outside of China should we resume flight connections.”
Sebastian Gülde, a spokesman for the German health ministry, said authorities were “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.” This meant there was no reason to declare China a variant area of the virus, which would lead to travel restrictions on those arriving from the country.
The UK also said it was not considering restrictions on travelers arriving from China.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome, Guy Chazan in Berlin and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London