The United States was considering, Tuesday, December 27, to impose entry restrictions on its territory to travelers from China, where the authorities have suddenly relaxed their measures to fight against Covid-19. U.S. officials said they follow “scientific data and advice from public health experts, consult their partners” and consider “to take similar measures (…) to protect the American people”.
The statement comes on the heels of Chinese authorities announcing on Tuesday the lifting of the entry quarantine for travelers, as the Omicron variant has spread dramatically in the country since restrictions ended on 7 December. After months of a “zero Covid” policy, Chinese officials abruptly ended epidemic control measures, causing infections to spike in a short period of time and raising concern in several countries over the coronavirus. arrival of travelers from China.
PCR tests in Japan and India
Earlier this week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the strengthening of measures related to the fight against Covid-19 at its borders. A screening test will be mandatory for all travelers from mainland China, from December 30. Direct air traffic between Japan and China will also be limited to four airports.
India also took preventive measures at the end of December to avoid an outbreak of contamination. Prime Minister Narendra Modi thus imposed, from Saturday December 24, PCR tests on travelers coming from China, but also from Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. For other international travellers, only 2% of passengers are tested on arrival, randomly. The island of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, also announced that it would carry out virus checks on travelers from the mainland, such as Malaysia.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) had expressed concern about the progression of the epidemic in China on December 21, the institution saying to itself “ very concerned about the development of the situation ” in the country. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had called on the Chinese government to speed up the vaccination of the most vulnerable populations and asked for more detailed information on the severity of the epidemic.