England has joined France, Spain, Italy and others in requiring passengers arriving from China to present a negative test result for COVID-19 before they board, British ministers said.
This comes as cases spiked following Beijing’s decision to ease its policy on the non-spread of the coronavirus.
China said it will fully reopen its borders on January 8.
Many countries, including the United States, France and India, have imposed tests on people arriving from China.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that people traveling from China on direct flights from January 5 will be required to take a Covid test before departure.
From January 8, Britain’s Health Security Agency will also launch the monitoring process, which will see a sample of passengers from China tested for the virus upon arrival.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the government was taking a “balanced and precautionary approach”, adding that the measures were “temporary” as officials assess the latest COVID data.
The testing requirement only applies to people traveling to English airports, and the government says that although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it is working with devolved departments to ensure the policy is applied nationwide.
The UK government said its decision was due to a “lack of comprehensive health information shared by China”.
The World Health Organization has called on Beijing to share “real-time” information about Covid, including deaths, hospitalizations and vaccinations.
The UN body said it was ready to provide support on data sharing, adding that it was “understandable” that some countries were now imposing new restrictions.
China’s foreign ministry said earlier this week that the “epidemic situation” in general is “predictable and under control”.
The Chinese government reports about 5,000 cases a day, but analysts say those numbers are incomplete, and the number of daily cases could be closer to a million.
The true number of daily cases and deaths in China is unknown as officials stopped requiring reporting of cases, and changed classifications of Covid deaths.
Some scientists have questioned the approach of Britain and the United States, saying it is best to screen people as soon as they arrive. Italy and Spain have introduced post-arrival testing.
Concerns about the impact of the test
Professor Andrew Pollard, chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, said the restrictions were unlikely to prevent new Covid variants from reaching Britain, and it was difficult to know what impact such a move would have here.
“It turns out that trying to block the virus by adjusting what we do with travel doesn’t work very well,” he told the BBC.
“We’ve seen that with travel being banned from various countries during the pandemic, that didn’t stop those viruses from eventually traveling around the world.”
But there is concern that more infections could provide more opportunities for the virus to mutate.
Countries planning to test travelers say the policy will help detect new variants of concern early and prevent an influx of cases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said testing visitors from China, Hong Kong and Macau was necessary “to help slow the spread of the virus while we work to identify … any potential new variants that may emerge”.
The British government has also come under pressure from Conservative MPs who want a more forceful response.
David Davis, the Conservative MP, suggested that mandatory testing for people coming from China was a “very reasonable requirement”.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee, called the test a “little effort”.
“Let’s test passengers, regardless of their nationality, on all flights coming from China,” he told LBC Radio.
“Do we want to take a risk after all we’ve been through in this pandemic”?
Other states mandate a negative test
Also, France, Spain and Italy announced that visitors from China would be required to test for Covid.
The French government said that passengers traveling from China to France would have to present a negative test less than 48 hours before departure.
Arrivals in Spain can skip the tests if they are fully vaccinated, and Spain accepts some Chinese vaccines.
Neither France nor Spain specified when the measures would enter into force.
Despite this, the French ministries of health and transport said the government would publish a decree and notify EU member states.
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China said it will fully reopen its borders on January 8
On Thursday, the European Union’s disease prevention agency said such measures were not justified in Europe, due to levels of immunity and the fact that the variants circulating in China were already present on the continent.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duk-soo also said that travelers from China will need to take a COVID-19 test before boarding flights to South Korea.
They will also need to take the test on the first day of their arrival in South Korea.
Meanwhile, Israel has ordered foreign airlines not to allow people to fly out of China unless they test negative, and has asked its citizens to avoid non-essential travel there.
Not all countries have reported controls. Germany joined Australia, France and Portugal in saying there would be no new rules yet.
While the German Minister of Health said that the country is seeking a coordinated system to monitor variables across European airports.