On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning rejected the decision of several countries to “target” Chinese travellers by imposing quarantine and screening requirements, calling them “unacceptable” and “disproportionate.”
She added that Beijing will “take corresponding measures” in response to countries’ use of COVID-19 restrictions for “political purposes”.
This is in response to additional screening requirements introduced, by several countries including the US, the UK, and India, for inbound passengers from China. Governments and experts have complained about China’s lack of transparency in the caseload and death count amid its latest COVID-19 outbreak.
Today 🇪🇺 Health Security Committee converged on action including:
— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) January 3, 2023
▶️Pre-departure testing for travellers from China
▶️Stepped up wastewater monitoring
▶️Increased domestic surveillance
Discussion continues tomorrow in IPCR.
🇪🇺 unity remains our strongest tool against COVID.
EU INCHES CLOSER TO BLOC-WIDE RESTRICTIONS
On Tuesday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that the EU and the European Commission have agreed to cooperate and increase monitoring. They will work with the WHO and other disease control centres to revise the risk assessments.
EU members also participated in a health security meeting on the same day. The officials inched closer to a consensus on screening and quarantining requirements for passengers travelling from China. Further discussions are scheduled for Wednesday.
Speaking to Politico, a Commission official said that an “overwhelming majority” of members support the need for pre-departure testing for inbound passengers from China. The draft proposal currently mandates masks on flights and increased emphasis on testing and vaccination. The plan further calls for genome surveillance of COVID-19 tests of passengers and wastewater from aeroplanes to check the presence of new variants.
On two recent flights, half the passengers from China to Italy tested positive for COVID.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) January 2, 2023
There's no reason we should allow China to—once again—knowingly infect people across the globe.
While the discussions on bloc-wide measures are ongoing, several European countries have announced individual decisions to impose restrictions on Chinese travellers. Italy was the first EU member to announce measures in December. Soon after, France and Spain joined Italy in introducing quarantine and screening requirements.
Despite China’s warnings of countermeasures, French PM Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday that the government is “performing [its] duty in asking for tests” and will “continue to do it” in the near future.
The ECDC has earlier said that bloc-wide measures were not necessary as the variants in China were already present in the EU, which was largely unaffected given the high vaccination rates.