U.S. to impose mandatory COVID-19 tests for travelers form China

The United States will
impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travelers from China, U.S.
health officials said on Wednesday, joining India, Italy, Japan
and Taiwan in taking new measures after Beijing’s decision to
lift stringent zero-COVID policies.
The officials told reporters that beginning on Jan. 5, all
air passengers 2 years old and older will require a negative
result from a test no more than two days before departure from
China, Hong Kong or Macao.
Passengers who test positive more than 10 days before a
flight can provide documentation of recovery in lieu of the
negative test result, the federal officials said.
In an abrupt change of policy, China this month began
dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and
extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a
complete re-opening next year.
The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests
against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and
likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some
international health experts.
Beijing has faced international criticism that its official
COVID data and its tally of deaths are inconsistent with the
scale of its outbreak.
Some global health experts have said the virus could infect
as many as 1 million people per day, and international modeling
groups have predicted China could experience 2 million deaths or
more.
Earlier this week, U.S. officials cited “the lack of
transparent data” from China, a persistent complaint from
Washington about China’s handling of the pandemic, as reason for
considering its own travel restrictions.
The U.S. and Chinese approaches to battling COVID have been
markedly different throughout the pandemic.
High infection rates in the United States early in the
pandemic gave Beijing room to argue its model of strict COVID
prevention measures had saved lives.
China has struggled to vaccinate its elderly population and
has yet to authorize foreign mRNA vaccines. Its overall
vaccination rate is above 90% but the rate for adults who have
had booster shots drops to 57.9%, and to 42.3% for people aged
80 and older, according to Chinese government data last week.
The country has nine domestically-developed COVID vaccines
approved for use, but none has been updated to target the highly
infectious Omicron variant.
In June, the United States rescinded a 17-month-old
requirement that people arriving in the country by air test
negative for COVID-19. It still requires most non-U.S. citizens
to be vaccinated against COVID to travel to the United States.