What are the new covid regulations for travellers from China who want to enter the US?
The United States has imposed new testing requirements for visitors from China in response to a surge of covid-19 cases in the country.
In response to the news that China is reopening its borders, the United States has announced new restrictions for travellers from China as it undergoes a surge in cases.
Despite reporting just 5,000 cases per day, analysts suspect that the true number of new daily cases in China could be close to one million. Reports from the country suggest that hospitals are being overwhelmed by high case numbers and there are shortages of medicine.
Due to the lack of “adequate and transparent” data from China, the US has announced that travellers entering from China, Hong Kong and Macau will be required to do a coronavirus test. The new rules will go into effect from 5 January.
The CDC website reads: “Passengers, regardless of citizenship or vaccination status, are required to show a negative COVID-19 test result taken no more than 2 days before their flight departs.
“Those who had COVID-19 in the 90 days before their travel to the United States can instead show documentation of recovery from COVID-19.”
Similar requirements have been put in place by health authorities in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, Spain, Canada and Japan.
China angry at ‘discriminatory’ testing requirement
While US authorities reiterate that the additional restrictions are due to a present danger from China as it grapples with high case numbers, Beijing has reacted angrily to the move. The new measures relate specifically to travellers from China and the Chinese government criticised the ‘discriminatory’ rules.
The vast majority of Chinese people have been unable to travel overseas since March 2020 when the country imposed some of the strictest lockdown measures seen anywhere in the world.
The subject of covid-19 responses has become a very sensitive topic within the Chinese government, who have maintained a ‘Zero Covid’ policy for three years. Government officials have sought to paint the new testing requirement as an attempt to exert political pressure on China.
Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said: “We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable.”
He continued by saying that China is “firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the Covid measures for political purposes,” and warned that it would “take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity.”