Topline
The U.S. government will require all air travelers from China to submit a negative Covid-19 test before being admitted into the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, citing a rise in cases in China as the country lifts its strict pandemic mitigation rules—and China’s lack of transparency in reporting new infections.
Passengers go through immigration at the international airport in Hong Kong on December 28, 2022. – … [+]
Key Facts
Starting January 5, anyone traveling from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau will be required to submit a negative PCR or antigen test to airline officials no more than two days before boarding a plane to the U.S., the CDC said.
Travelers headed to the U.S. from Seoul, Toronto and Vancouver–hubs that service a large number of connecting flights from China–will also have to provide negative tests if they have been in China within the past 10 days.
The CDC said “reduced testing and case reporting in the [People’s Republic of China],” along with “minimal sharing of viral genomic sequence data,” threatens the U.S.’s ability to track new coronavirus variants.
The new requirement comes amid a surge of Covid-19 cases in China, which has shed its strict lockdown policies in recent months and is preparing to lift its quarantine policy for incoming travelers on January 8.
Big Number
1 million. That’s the number of new daily Covid-19 cases in China, according to an estimate from the British health analytics firm Airfinity. While China reported just three new Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday and one Monday, Airfinity estimates the country is facing more than 5,000 deaths daily. Privately, Chinese health officials estimated that 37 million people may have been infected on a single day last week, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing minutes from an internal meeting of China’s National Health Commission held last Wednesday, a figure that shatters the previous record of 4 million new cases a day set in January 2022.
Key Background
The CDC announcement comes as other countries have also implemented new precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from China. Japan on Monday announced it would also require negative testing from travelers from China, citing “great discrepancies” in its reporting on Covid-19 cases. Italy is also requiring tests for all incoming travelers from China after finding that half of all travelers arriving in Milan from China on a pair of recent flights tested positive for Covid-19, Italian health officials said Wednesday.
Further Reading
China Appears To Ditch Zero-Covid In Overhaul To Pandemic Rules (Forbes)
China’s Worst Reported Month Of Covid Was Nothing Compared To The United States (Forbes)
Italy Orders Covid Tests For China Arrivals, U.S. Weighs Rules (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/12/28/us-will-require-covid-tests-for-travelers-from-china-amid-surge-in-cases/