US will require Covid-19 testing for travellers from China

Passengers wearing masks walk through the Capital airport terminal in Beijing. Photo / AP

The US has announced new Covid-19 testing requirements for travellers from China, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections.

The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. China’s “zero Covid” policies had kept China’s infection rate low but fuelled public frustration and crushed economic growth.

From January 5 all travellers to the US from China will have to take a Covid-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone aged 2 years and older.

Other countries have taken similar steps in an effort to keep infections from spreading beyond China’s borders. Japan will require a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travellers from China, and Malaysia announced new tracking and surveillance measures. India, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus tests for visitors from China.

Lunar New Year, which begins on January 22, is usually China’s busiest travel season, and China announced on Tuesday it will resume issuing passports for tourism for the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

The US action is a return to requirements for some international travellers. The Biden administration lifted the last of such mandates in June. At that time, the CDC continued to recommend that people boarding flights to the US get tested close to departure time and not travel if they are sick.

Early in the pandemic, the US barred entry to foreigners travelling from China, weeks after the virus first emerged there three years ago. Americans were allowed to return home and flights from China were funnelled to selected airports where passengers were screened for illness.

But the virus already was spreading in the US among people with no travel history.