In view of the current wave of corona infections in China, other countries are tightening their controls for people entering China. Spain, France, Great Britain and South Korea also announced testing requirements on Friday. The German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, currently considers this to be “not yet necessary”, and according to the Ministry of Health, no mandatory testing is currently planned in Austria either.
After almost three years of strict precautions, China’s leadership abruptly announced an end to its zero-corona policy on December 7th. According to officially unconfirmed internal estimates, 248 million people, or 18 percent of the population, became infected in the first three weeks of December alone. Some scientists warned that the corona wave could produce new variants that would then find their way to other countries.
Expert Elling reassured
The molecular biologist Ulrich Elling, on the other hand, calmed down in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung” this week. “It is important to understand that there is currently a completely different selection pressure in China than in most other countries,” explains the researcher, who is sequencing the variants of Sars-CoV-2 for Austria at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology. Since the immunity of the population in China is much lower, the virus has no trouble spreading. The BF.7 variant, which reached the peak in Europe in autumn, is currently rampant there. The only selection pressure in China would be in the direction of increased infectivity, said Elling, “but that’s hardly possible with BF.7 anyway.”
The EU discussed the situation in China on Thursday. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides then called on the states to review their national surveillance measures for the virus and, if necessary, to ramp them up again. A crisis meeting is expected to take place next week.
Lauterbach wants coordinated action in the EU
Lauterbach also considers a coordinated Europe-wide solution to be important. “We need very precise “variant monitoring” because we cannot reliably call up this variant monitoring from China,” said the German minister. “The targeted review of individual flight sequences, for example, could also play a role here, which is being prepared.” But there is no reason for “routine antigen tests”.
Italy, the US and India had already introduced or announced restrictions on travelers to China. Spain’s Health Minister Carolina Darias also announced on Friday that travelers from the People’s Republic would have to present a corona test or proof of full vaccination upon entry. From when was initially unclear. In France, in addition to the obligation to present a negative corona test upon entry, random tests will be carried out on arrivals from China, the government in Paris announced on Friday evening. The government in London also decided to introduce compulsory corona tests for travelers to China. Japan and South Korea also announced controls upon entry.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, showed understanding for the actions of the countries because “comprehensive information from China” was missing. (apa/red)