After zero Covid-Aus – First flight from China landed in Vienna in the morning

Due to the strong corona spread in the country, Austria, like many other countries, has introduced a corona test obligation for travelers from the People’s Republic. Passengers had to present a negative PCR test not older than 48 hours before departure. The tests were checked by the airport ground staff during check-in in China. The Boeing 777 was 80 to 85 percent booked, an AUA spokeswoman said. About 300 passengers can fit in the airline’s largest commercial jet.

Morocco bans entry from China
Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) announced the mandatory testing on Thursday. He joined the decisions of various governments worldwide. So far, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, the US, Israel, Japan and Portugal have declared corona tests necessary. Morocco even went a step further and banned all entry from China, regardless of the nationality of the travelers.

Already 209,000 Covid deaths in China?
A huge corona wave is currently rolling through the country. According to media reports, China’s health system and crematoria are completely overwhelmed. According to estimates by London-based data processor Airfinity, 2.5 million people are currently re-infected every day in China and 16,600 die every day. According to this, there are already 209,000 dead.

With such a large outbreak, there are also fears for the emergence of new Covid variants. Numerous countries – including Austria – are testing the wastewater from aircraft coming from China for new virus variants.

Experts fear new virus variants
Rauch is not worried about the worsening of the corona situation in Austria. In contrast to China, there is broad immunity against the omicron variant in Austria, which also dominates in China, he recently emphasized. Germany is more careful here. The Robert Koch Institute describes China as a “virus variant area in which a worrying virus variant threatens to emerge”. The German government also advises against ‘unnecessary’ travel to the Asian country.

Few flights, tickets very expensive
Despite the opening, no large travel wave from China is expected for the time being. The number of international flights is still limited, the tickets are very expensive. The Chinese authorities also want to issue or renew passports again, but in the first place only for business and study trips. It would take months for more Chinese to arrive in this country, Secretary of State for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler (ÖVP) predicted.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, Europe was a popular travel destination for China. According to Eurostat data, Chinese citizens accounted for more than 22 million overnight stays in the EU-27 in the last year before the coronavirus, 2019. In 2019, 1.42 million overnight stays in Austria were attributable to Chinese tourists. About one million of these, or two-thirds, were due to the summer season.

China’s opening-up came a month after China abruptly backed away from its strict zero-Covid policy. Since the beginning of 2020, Beijing has tried to control the disease with tens of millions of lockdowns, cordoned off cities, mass testing and enforced quarantines. After new omicron variants nevertheless exploded, the second largest economy came under increasing pressure and people protested against the strict measures, the Chinese government announced its zero tolerance policy on December 7.