France, Britain impose Covid tests on travellers from China
France and Britain on Friday joined a growing list of nations imposing Covid tests on travellers from China, after Beijing dropped foreign travel curbs despite surging cases.
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France, Britain, Spain, South Korea and Israel have joined Italy, Japan, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States in requiring negative Covid tests for all travellers from mainland China, in a bid to avoid importing new virus variants.
In Britain's case, the requirement comes into effect from January 5.
Switzerland however said it would keep its borders open for arrivals from China.
Different European approaches
The European Union's infectious disease agency (ECDC) had said on Thursday such restrictions were not warranted for the moment, due to the high levels of immunity in the EU and European Economic Area.
Germany seemed to take that on board Friday, saying it did not currently see the need to impose routine tests on arrivals from China.
But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach did argue for a coordinated EU-wide system to monitor variants across European airports.
"We need a European solution," he said.
But on Friday, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides urged health ministers to step up Covid-19 variant sequencing amidst a surge in infections in China.
In a letter to health ministers of the EU's 27 members, she said the bloc should be "very vigilant" as China lifted travel restrictions earlier this month as reliable epidemiological and testing data for China were quite scarce.
Having kept its borders shut for three years, Beijing abruptly reversed course toward living with the virus on 7 December, and infections have spread rapidly in recent weeks.
'Assessing current practices on sequencing'
Kyriakides advised ministers to assess their current practices on genomic sequencing of the coronavirus "as an immediate step".
If sequencing had been scaled down, countries might want to consider scaling it back up, she wrote, adding that it was important to continue or start surveillance of waste water, including sewage from key airports.
If a new variant appeared, the bloc needed to detect it early to be able to react quickly, the commissioner wrote.
The commissioner's letter, dated 29 December, followed an online meeting of over 100 representatives from EU members, EU health agencies and the World Health Organisation to discuss how to deal with the outbreak in China
(With agencies)
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