England will require a negative test for all arrivals

Ministers have confirmed that all passengers from China arriving in England must submit a negative Covid test prior to boarding a flight.

It is a response to the announcement by several countries that they will be screening Chinese tourists after increasing numbers of cases following Beijing’s decision not to enforce its zero-Covid policy.

China stated that it would completely reopen its borders starting on January 8.

Many countries, including India, France, and the USA, have implemented testing.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care, people flying from China to visit China by direct flights starting 5 January will need to complete a Covid pre-departure test.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will also be launching surveillance. A sample of Chinese passengers will be tested as soon as they arrive in the UK for the virus.

Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, stated that the government had adopted a “balanced” and “precautionary approach”. He added that the measures were temporary while officials review the most recent Covid data.

The testing requirement is only applicable to those flying to English airports. However, the government said that although there aren’t direct flights from China to Scotland or Wales, it is working closely with the devolved administrations in order to ensure that the policy applies across the UK.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) head has stated that it is understandable that certain countries have imposed new restrictions.

China’s foreign minister said this week, however, that its “epidemic condition” was under control and predicable.

Although the Chinese government reports about 5,000 cases per day, analysts believe that such numbers are greatly undercounted and may even be closer to one million.

Officials have stopped reporting cases, and have changed the classifications of Covid deaths.

According to the UK government, China’s lack of health information was the reason for its decision.

South Korea, Israel, Spain, and Israel also announced Friday they would introduce testing requirements as a response to China’s increasing infection rate.

Scientists have raised concerns about the US and UK’s approach to screening people arriving in the country. Italy and Spain have implemented post-arrival testing.

However, not all countries have already announced additional controls. Germany, Australia, and Portugal have all stated that they will not be introducing new rules.

Concerns about the impact of testing

Professor Andrew Pollard, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, stated that the restrictions will not prevent new Covid variants from reaching the UK and it was hard to predict what effect such a move might have.

BBC News reported that he said: “Trying to ban virus by changing how we handle travel has already been shown to not work very well.

“We’ve seen that the bans on travel from different countries during the pandemic haven’t stopped these viruses traveling around the world eventually.”

However, there are concerns that the virus could mutate if it is infected with more people.

The countries that will test travelers say this policy will allow them to spot new worrying variants earlier and prevent an influx.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that testing foreign visitors from China and Hong Kong was necessary to “slow the spread of this virus as we attempt to identify… any possible new variants.”

Conservative MPs have also put pressure on the government, requesting a stronger response.

David Davis, Tory MP and member of the Tory Party, suggested mandatory testing to anyone coming from China as a “pretty sensible requirement”.

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of Commons Defence Select Committee, said that testing was a “minimal effort”.

LBC radio interviewed him: “Let’s get testing done for all passengers, regardless of their nationality, on all incoming flights to China.

“Does this make sense after the horrors of this pandemic?”