Following India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan, the United States announced on Wednesday (December 28) that it would impose entry restrictions on passengers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
U.S. health officials announced that starting from January 5, all travelers from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau who are two years old and above must present a certificate of negative test results within 48 hours before departure before entering the country.
U.S. officials said: "The international community is increasingly concerned about China's ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases and the lack of transparent data from China, including virus genome sequence data." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded yesterday The epidemic prevention measures of various countries should be scientific and moderate, and should not affect normal personnel exchanges.
Australia's chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, said Australia had decided not to screen travelers arriving from China for the coronavirus despite a spike in the number of cases in China.
Professor Kelly said Australia, with its high levels of vaccination and adequate supply of antiviral drugs, would not be affected by serious problems related to the new crown. He said the biggest concern right now is potential new variants.
The Australian Ministry of Health said in response to ABC Chinese inquiries that the Australian government continues to monitor the global situation, and the current arrangements for inbound passengers remain unchanged.
Australian Prime Minister Albanese also stated that there is currently no change to the entry requirements for Chinese tourists to Australia, but as more and more countries implement mandatory new crown testing for Chinese tourists, the authorities will "monitor the situation".
Australia has completely canceled the vaccination and new crown testing requirements for international tourists entering from July this year. Prime Minister Albanese said this month Australia would treat COVID-19 "like any other respiratory disease".
Australia was one of the first countries to impose entry restrictions on travelers from mainland China when the outbreak first broke out in early 2020.
Since China announced on December 27 that it will cancel entry testing and quarantine requirements for international passengers from January 8 next year, and start to resume Chinese citizensoutbound travel, five countries have successively announced entry restrictions on Chinese tourists .
- Japan: From December 30th, immigrants from China will need to undergo a new crown test, and those who are positive will need to be quarantined for seven days. Japan also plans to restrict airlines from increasing flights to China.
- India: Mandatory testing for travelers from five countries, including Japan and China.
- Italy: It is mandatory for Chinese inbound passengers to undergo new crown testing. According to reports, on Christmas Eve, when passengers on a flight from Beijing entered Milan, Italy, 62 of the 120 passengers on board were positive.
In addition, Hong Kong announced that starting today (December 29), it will relax a number of epidemic prevention measures, including canceling vaccine passes, canceling restrictions on gatherings, close contacts no longer need to be quarantined, and when overseas passengers enter from the airport, There is also no need to do nucleic acid testing .
The search volume of international flights has soared
Since December 27, the search volume of Chinese searches for international flights has soared from a very low level, but some travel agencies said that it will take several months for Chinese outbound travel to return to normal levels.
According to Chinese media reports, half an hour after the Chinese government announced the relaxation of entry and exit restrictions, the number of searches for outbound travel on the Internet increased sharply. Traditional Asian travel routes such as Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and Singapore were the most popular searches. New Zealand is also a popular destination.
Economists at Morgan Stanley expect China to grow by 5.4% in 2023 after the peak of infections as a result of loosening restrictions, while economists at Goldman Sachs see at 5.2%.
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