Us department of health and china, hong kong and macau were involved in the announcement that all passengers travelling from these countries must take covid tests no more than two days before departure. italy and belgium have also expressed their support for the measure, while the uk and germany are closely monitoring the situation in china. on 26 december, a flight from china to milan’s malpensa airport landed, where 52% of the passengers tested positive for covid.
Announcement was made on 8 january, when china is set to reopen its borders. beijing has criticised some countries and media for ‘hyping up’ the situation, while reports claim that hospitals in china are overburdened and elderly people are dying. last week, beijing reported around 4,000 new covid infections daily, but few deaths.
Us, italy and belgium have imposed mandatory covid tests on chinese tourists in order to protect their populations. health minister orazio schillaci said that mandatory covid testing is necessary to protect the italian population. china has kept its covid regulations relaxed, while hong kong has declared that it is scrapping all of its covid rules, apart from the wearing of face masks. foreign minister spokesman wang wenbin called for joint efforts to ensure safe cross-border travel.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64111492?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
