Washington’s demand to present a negative Covid-19 test to travelers from China at the country’s borders is based “solely on science,” the spokesman for US diplomacy said on Tuesday.
“It’s an approach that is based solely and exclusively on science,” Ned Price of the US State Department told reporters.
The statements came in reaction to those, earlier, by a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy who had considered that the restrictions adopted by a dozen countries were “unacceptable” and “devoid of scientific basis.”
Starting January 5 at 12:01 a.m. in Washington, “all air travelers 2 years and older coming from China will be required to take a test no more than two days before departure,” regardless of their nationality or vaccination status, announced December. 28 US health authorities.
The fear of new variants
The United States has expressed particular concern that the rapid transmission of the virus in China will lead to the emergence of new variants.
The measures “are based on public health concerns” due to “the explosion in the number of Covid-19 cases in China and the lack of adequate and transparent sequencing data from China,” Ned Price said Tuesday.
The spokesman reiterated Washington’s offer to share its covid vaccine doses with Beijing.
Negative results will need to be presented to the airlines upon departure and PCR or antigen tests will be accepted, along with proof of having recovered from Covid-19 after testing positive more than 10 days before the flight.
This decision follows similar announcements by several countries, including Japan, India and Italy, which have also imposed mandatory testing on arriving Chinese.
Source: BFM TV
