But it’s in line with the approach taken on the virus in most of the world all last year, and it’s in line with publicly expressed views this week from infectious disease experts.
There’s been a general divide between health experts and political officials around the world over the worth of requiring tests from Chinese travellers.
Yesterday the European Union said it encouraged member states to require pre-departure testing. The EU’s health agency said last week that bloc-wide tests were “unjustified” given Europe’s high levels of immunity.
The Australian Government’s decision earlier this week to impose testing explicitly went against the advice of its Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly who said there was not “sufficient public health rationale” for it.
Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler said the requirements were being taken out of an “abundance of caution” but that China’s outbreak “poses no immediate public health threat to Australians”.
As has been noted in the media (and in Tuesday’s editorial) there is a view that such travel measures have previously made little difference in stalling the spread of Covid cases and variants and are more about political appearances.
France’s Covid expert committee recommended screenings but pointed out that: “The restrictions imposed on South Africa during Omicron’s emergence in late 2021 had very little impact on the outbreak’s evolution in Europe.”
French epidemiologist Dominique Costagliola said testing arrivals from China “is not very useful apart from giving the impression that we are doing something”. University of Melbourne infectious diseases expert Fiona Russell said: “We shouldn’t be turning back the clock to this kind of reactionary, knee-jerk policy response.”
Costagliola couched her comment in the context that France has been reducing its sequencing capacity. What health experts want is adequate surveillance of the Omicron subvariants circulating around the world and any variants that might emerge.
University of Queensland Professor Paul Griffin said: “A far better strategy would be just to strengthen our surveillance in our country. Bring back wastewater testing in all states, make sure we still do a good proportion of PCR testing and sequencing so we know what is being imported and what is circulating.”
He said XBB.1.5, a new Omicron subvariant that has begun dominating case numbers in the United States, was more concerning at the moment.
Both governments and experts want early warning of any problematic new variants emerging from China and the World Health Organisation has been pushing for full, transparent data from Beijing.
The EU’s new stance incorporates wider actions than just pre-departure testing. Stella Kyriakides, the European commissioner for health, said the EU’s health security committee on Wednesday arrived at a combination of pre-departure testing, monitoring of plane wastewater, and increased surveillance of Covid in the EU.
New Zealand’s response is a sensible one that fits with the overall policy of getting on with life despite Omicron’s persistence. Data can be collected without individual-based tests for one country. Travellers are all going to countries where the virus soup exists. People should know how to reduce their risk of catching Covid - whatever strain it is.
But, as Griffin suggested for Australia, there’s probably room to strengthen surveillance here as well.
And there’s also a good case for making Omicron-specific boosters available for those who are eligible and want them sooner rather than later.
