The United States announced new Covid-19 testing requirements on Wednesday for all travelers from chinajoining other nations imposing restrictions due to a surge of infections.
The rising cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. China’s “covid zero” policies kept the country’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and squashed economic growth.
The new US requirements, beginning January 5, apply to travelers regardless of nationality and vaccination status. In a statement explaining the tests, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited rising infections and what it said was a lack of adequate and transparent information from China, including genomic sequencing of the strains. viruses circulating in the country.
“These data are critical to effectively monitor rising cases and decrease the possibility of entry of a new variant of concern,” the CDC said.
Some scientists are concerned that the rise of Covid-19 in China could unleash a new variant of coronavirus in the world that may or may not be similar to those circulating now. That’s because each infection is another opportunity for the virus to mutate. “What we want to prevent is a variant entering the US and spreading like we saw with delta or omicron,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The United States will require travelers from China to show a negative covid test before flight
Japan, India, Taiwan and Italy have set testing requirements for travelers from China.
Taiwan and Japan said that if you test positive upon arrival, you must self-quarantine for several days. @cnn pic.twitter.com/mXBXKKnml7—Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) December 29, 2022
But the CDC’s action may have less to do with preventing a new variant from crossing US borders. The restrictions “don’t stay in place any longer than necessary.”
“I don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact on slowing the spread of covid-19,” Dowdy said. “We already have a lot of covid-19 transmission here within our borders.”
Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that China is not sharing enough genomic sequencing information. But he also said the United States has become a bit complacent about the sequence and needs to redouble its own efforts. The CDC also announced the expansion of an early warning program that tests volunteers at select airports for new and rare variants of the coronavirus. That program will expand to the Seattle and Los Angeles airports.
Under new US rules, travelers to the US from China, Hong Kong and Macau will be required to take a Covid-19 test no more than two days before travel and test negative before boarding their flight. The test applies to anyone over the age of 2, including US citizens. It will apply to people traveling from China via a third country and to people connecting via the US when going to other destinations. Anyone who tests positive more than 10 days before the flight can provide documentation showing they have recovered from Covid-19 in lieu of a negative test result.
Relatives attend to a sick patient in a wheelchair at the emergency department of Langfang No. 4 People’s Hospital in Bazhou city, north China’s Hebei province. (AP, file)
It will be up to airlines to confirm negative tests and recovery documentation before passengers board.
Other countries have taken similar measures in an effort to prevent infections from spreading beyond China’s borders. Japan will require a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China, and Malaysia announced new monitoring and surveillance measures. India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan require virus tests for visitors from China.
The Lunar New Year, which begins on January 22, is usually China’s busiest travel season, and China announced on Tuesday that it will resume issuing passports for tourism for the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020. welcome back Chinese travelers. to the United States,” US Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said in a statement. He called the US approach to screening incoming travelers “reasonable and appreciated.”
The US action is a return to testing requirements for some international travelers. The Biden administration lifted the last of those terms in June. At the time, the CDC continued to recommend that people boarding flights to the US be tested close to departure time and not travel if sick.
“We have done this before. We can do it again,” Dowdy said.
At the start of the pandemic, the US barred entry to foreigners traveling from China, weeks after the virus first emerged there three years ago, and dozens of other countries were added to the list. The country began lifting travel bans late last year but required travelers to the US to get vaccinated and tested.
