Canada and Australia on Sunday joined the swelling list of countries demanding travelers from China take a coronavirus test prior to flight boarding, almost three years to the day since the first cases were notified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Chinese state media has criticized such restrictions as “discriminatory” and “xenophobic” while the E.U.’s health agency said Thursday additional measures for travelers from China were “unjustified.”
Canberra informed Beijing that from Jan 5. all air travelers from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao will need to show a negative coronavirus test taken within two days ahead of departure.
Canadian authorities announced similar measures that will also come into effect Jan. 5.
Australia and Canada join other countries including the U.S., U.K., India, Japan, Spain, Israel in imposing tougher measures on Chinese travelers amid concerns over a lack of data on coronavirus infections in China and fears of the possibility that new variants may spread, AP reports.
Israel will declare the coronavirus pandemic officially over next month, with the viral disease being downgraded to the status of the flu. https://t.co/IBZERUDNae
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 31, 2022
Governments that announced new travel requirements cite what they say is a lack of transparent data from China, which has stopped reporting nationwide case numbers, even as the rest of the world looks to move on from the strictures imposed by the pandemic.
The flurry of global travel restrictions began as countries anticipated a surge in Chinese visitors after Beijing announced mandatory quarantine for inbound passengers would end on January 8.
The country of 1.4 billion people narrowly defines coronavirus deaths and has reported only a handful since largely lifting restrictions early last month, with an official toll of 5,246 since the start of the pandemic.
A passenger coming from China leaves a COVID-19 testing area set at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. France says it will require negative COVID-19 tests of all passengers arriving from China and is urging French citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. (AP/Aurelien Morissard)
GISAID, a public database based in Germany, observed analysis of the latest genomic sequencing data shared by Chinese health officials showed the variants in China closely resemble those already circulating globally.
Meanwhile, Morocco moved to ban all arrivals from China on Saturday, “to avoid a new wave of contaminations in Morocco and all its consequences.”
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