According to information from government circles, the US is considering corona measures for travelers from China. Earlier, Japan, India and Malaysia announced stricter rules. Milan Malpensa Airport started testing passengers coming from China for the corona virus on Tuesday. Austrian Airlines has announced that it will fly to China more often after the end of the quarantine.
“There is growing concern in the international community about the continued rise in coronavirus infections in China and the lack of transparent data, including genomic sequencing data, reported from the People’s Republic of China,” government officials told Reuters news agency in Washington on Wednesday.
Health experts doubt China’s figures
Some hospitals and funeral homes in China are overwhelmed as the virus spreads largely unchecked in the country of 1.4 billion people. However, official statistics show just one death related to the virus in the seven days to Monday, casting doubt on the government’s claims among health experts. The numbers don’t match the experiences many less densely populated countries have had after they reopened.
The measures are accompanied by a relaxation of the previously drastic corona entry restrictions in China itself. China’s Health Commission announced on Monday that the quarantine requirement for travelers will be lifted from January 8. Travelers are currently being isolated in a hotel room and closely monitored for at least five days. Sometimes an entry quarantine of 21 days was even mandatory. According to the committee, travelers only need to submit a negative corona test before leaving for China. Further tests after arrival should be omitted.
Abrupt end of the zero Covid policy
China announced an abrupt end to its zero-Covid policy on December 7 after nearly three years of lockdowns, mass testing and other strict measures. The turnaround in corona policy was justified by the fact that infections with the new Omikron variants were no longer so difficult. With the end of the measures, the virus spread quickly in the country. According to officially unconfirmed internal estimates, 248 million people or 18 percent of the population were infected with Corona in the first three weeks of December alone. Hospitals are overcrowded and many crematoria can no longer cremate the corpses fast enough.
Milan airport is testing passengers from China
Milan Malpensa Airport has now started testing passengers from China for the corona virus. Milan Airport is the only airport in Italy that requires a PCR test for travelers from China. According to the authorities, this is a preventive measure with which the Lombardy region, to which Milan belongs, wants to determine which variant Chinese passengers could have been infected with. 120 tests were already carried out at Milan airport on Tuesday.
AUA now flies to China more often
The Lufthansa Group, to which Austrian Airlines belongs, is currently investigating how the flight schedule can be adjusted. AUA had already announced before the relaxation of quarantine rules in China that it would fly from Vienna to Shanghai twice a week from January 16 instead of once a week.
Source: Krone
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