China will no longer require a negative Covid-19 test for travelers arriving from abroad starting Wednesday, a Chinese government source announced Monday.
The measure includes both antigen and nucleic acid tests, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
With this announcement, one of the last vestiges of the policy of zero cases of Covid-19 is dismantled, although, in recent months, the customs authorities have already stopped checking the results of the tests of those who arrive in the country. Airlines also stopped asking for a test upon boarding.
Last December, China abolished the zero-case policy of Covid-19, which included locking down cities, for consecutive weeks or months, whenever an outbreak was detected, and imposing a quarantine period of up to 21 days. to those who came from there. abroad, in hotels designated by the government.
The restrictions caused a slowdown in activity in the world’s second-largest economy and were eventually dismantled, after rare protests in several cities across the country.
A US government-funded study this month found that the abrupt rollback of the strategy may have led to nearly two million additional deaths in the two months that followed. This figure far exceeds the official estimates of 60,000 deaths, published a month after the restrictions were lifted.
In January, the country lifted quarantine requirements for those arriving from abroad and in recent months has gradually expanded the list of countries to which Chinese travel agencies can arrange group visits and increased the number of international flights.
China this month included Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe, Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOPs), in a third batch of destinations to which it will allow group tourism trips.
Portugal was included in a previous batch, last March, as well as Brazil, France or Spain.
Source: TSF
