Chinese tourists must test negative for Covid or US won’t let them in

CHINESE tourists will be forced to present negative Covid tests before entering the US as part of tough measures to stop a new strain of the virus taking hold.

China has reportedly suffered an explosion of Covid cases in recent weeks after ending its draconian ‘zeroCovid policy’.

Other countries have taken similar steps to prevent the spread of infections from China – but Britain is yet to announce any new measures.

Japan will require a negative coronavirus test upon arrival for travellers from China, while Malaysia also announced new tracking and surveillance measures.

India, South Korea and Taiwan also require tests for visitors from China.

China will scrap quarantine for inbound travellers from January 8 – drawing an end to some of the world’s harshest border restrictions.

The move was greeted with jubilation by Chinese citizens, who rushed to book international flights, triggering a surge in ticket prices. Searches for popular crossborder destinations such as Japan and Thailand increased tenfold.

But, on two flights from China to Milan, almost half of the passengers reportedly tested positive for Covid.

On the first flight, 35 out of 62 passengers tested positive, while 62 out of 120 travellers were found to have coronavirus on the second flight.

The cases prompted the Italian government to bring back mandatory testing for passen

‘Mounting concerns’

gers coming from China. It came as officials in Washington raised fears that Chinese leaders are concealing Covid death figures and ‘genomic sequence data’ that could identify a new strain.

Similar concerns were raised in early 2020 before the virus, which was first detected in China, exploded worldwide. By the time the US did ban travel from China in early February, cases were starting to rise in the country.

The US’s new rules, which come into effect from January 5, will apply to travellers flying directly from China as well as those travelling through popular third countries such as South Korea and Canada.

Swabs must either be performed by a doctor, or have been monitored – whether inperson or remotely – by a physician who can confirm that it was taken properly.

The swabs, which can be a PCR or rapid antigen test, must be taken no more than two days before flying.

US officials said: ‘There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing Covid surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from [China].

‘ Without this data, it is becoming increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread.’

China had maintained a strict ‘ zero-Covid policy’ for the past three years, imposing widespread lockdowns across the country.

As many as 250 million people were estimated to have been infected with the virus in just four days after Beijing lifted restrictions this month.