Passengers must have a negative test result or be completely vaccinated to enter Spain. It follows Italy’s announcement earlier this week that it had ordered COVID antigen swabs and viral sequencing for all Chinese travelers.
In response to an increase in COVID cases in China, Spain has become the second European country to propose new restrictions for Chinese travelers.
Passengers must have a negative test result or be completely vaccinated to enter Spain.
It follows Italy’s announcement earlier this week that it had ordered COVID antigen swabs and viral sequencing for all Chinese travelers.
Ministers in the United Kingdom have stated that the government is “monitoring” the situation. Minister of Health Will Quince cited the potential for the introduction of new varieties as the “primary threat.”
The chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Professor Andrew Pollard, stated that the application of travel restrictions was unlikely to be effective in preventing variations from entering the country.
“Attempting to prohibit a virus by modifying our travel practices has been proved to be ineffective. During the pandemic, travel restrictions from many countries demonstrated this “He stated.
Infections with the coronavirus skyrocketed across China in December after Beijing abandoned its zero-COVID measures, which included routine PCR testing of its population.
This week, China announced that it would abolish mandatory quarantine upon arrival, spurring many Chinese to plan international travel.
And there are fears that the termination of nearly three years of rigorous controls in the 1,4 billion-person nation could result in a global epidemic of the disease.
However, the European Union’s health agency stated on Thursday that mandatory COVID testing for Chinese travelers was “unjustified.”
The United States, Japan, India, Taiwan, and South Korea are among the non-EU nations instituting new restrictions such as testing requirements.
In a statement, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated that such restrictions are not required for the EU as a whole.
Malaysia declared on Friday that it will screen the body temperatures of all incoming travelers, including those from China, and those with fever or other symptoms will undergo COVID testing.
It will also collect coronavirus samples from aircraft arriving from China and undertake tests to detect the introduction of new varieties.
Countries adopting limitations or contemplating controls claim a lack of information about variations from China and express concern over an outbreak.
China has dismissed criticism of its COVID data and stated that it anticipates future mutations to be more transmissible but less severe.
