England has joined France, Spain, Italy and others in requiring passengers arriving from China to present a negative test result for COVID-19 before boarding, British ministers said.
This comes as cases surged following Beijing’s decision to ease its policy on not spreading the coronavirus.
China has 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 people traveling from China on direct flights from Jan. 5 will need to undergo a Covid test before departure.
From 8 January, Britain’s Health Security Agency will also start 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” while officials evaluate the latest COVID data.
The test requirement only applies to people traveling into English airports, and the government says while there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it is working with devolved departments to ensure policy is applied at the national level.
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 is “understandable” that some countries are now imposing new restrictions.
China’s foreign ministry said earlier this week that the “epidemic situation” in general was “predictable and under control”.
The Chinese government reports about 5,000 cases a day, but analysts say these numbers are incomplete and the number of daily cases could approach one million.
The true number of daily cases and deaths in China is unknown as officials stopped requiring case reports and changed classifications of Covid deaths.
Some scientists have questioned the approach of Britain and the United States, saying it’s best to check 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 Vaccination and Immunization Committee, said restrictions were unlikely to stop new variants of Covid from reaching Britain, and it’s hard to know what impact such a move would have here.
“It turns out that trying to block the virus by changing what we do with travel doesn’t work very well,” he told the BBC.
“We saw that with travel bans 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 of visitors from China, Hong Kong and Macau was needed “to help slow the spread of the virus as we work to identify … any new variants that may emerge “.
The British government has also come under pressure from Conservative MPs who want a stronger response.
David Davis, the Conservative MP, suggested that mandatory testing for people from China was a “very reasonable requirement”.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee, called the test a “small effort”.
“We test passengers, regardless of their nationality, on all flights from China,” he told LBC radio.
“Do we want to take a risk after everything we’ve been through in this pandemic”?
Other states mandate a negative test
Additionally, France, Spain and Italy announced that visitors from China would be required to test for Covid.
The French government has said passengers traveling from China to France will need to submit a negative test less than 48 hours before departure.
Arrivals in Spain can skip testing if they are fully vaccinated and Spain accepts some Chinese vaccines.
Neither France nor Spain specified when the measures would go into effect.
Despite this, France’s ministries of health and transport said the government would issue a decree and inform EU member states.
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China has said it will fully reopen its borders on January 8
On Thursday, the European Union’s disease prevention agency said such measures were not warranted in Europe, due to immunity levels and the fact that variants circulating in China were already present on the continent.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duk-soo also said travelers from China will need to undergo a COVID-19 test before boarding flights to South Korea.
They will also have 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.
Not all countries have reported checks. Germany has joined Australia, France and Portugal in saying there will be no new rules yet.
While the German health minister said the country is looking for a coordinated system to monitor variables at European airports.
