In the UK, ministers have confirmed that passengers arriving from China will need to provide a negative Covid test before boarding the plane.
With the number of cases increasing after Beijing’s decision to relax its zero Covid policy, several countries, including the United States, announced that they would request negative tests from travelers from China.
China has said it will fully open its borders on January 8.
The UK Department of Health and Social Care noted that from January 5, people traveling on direct flights from China will be asked to take a pre-departure Covid test.
From 8 January, the UK Health Safety Agency will also launch a program for passengers from China to be tested on arrival.
Health Minister Steve Barclay said the government was taking a “balanced and cautious approach” and added that the measures were “temporary” as officials were evaluating the latest Covid data.
The test requirement will only apply to people flying into UK airports. The government says it is working with other governments to ensure this policy is implemented across the UK, although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “understandable” that some countries were introducing new restrictions.
But China’s foreign ministry noted earlier this week that the “epidemic situation” was generally “predictable and under control”.
The Chinese government is reporting around 5,000 cases a day, but experts say these numbers are vastly underestimated and the daily number of cases could be closer to a million.
The actual number of daily cases and deaths in China is unknown because authorities stopped requiring reporting of cases.
The UK government said its decision was due to a “lack of health information shared by China”.
Spain, Israel and South Korea also announced on Friday that they will introduce testing requirements in response to the rising number of infections in China.
Some scientists questioned the UK and US approach and said it was better to test people on arrival. Italy and Spain have implemented post-arrival tests.
However, Germany, Australia, France and Portugal have announced that they will not yet announce additional controls.
Concerns about the impact of testing
Professor Andrew Pollard, Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), said the restrictions are unlikely to prevent new Covid variants from reaching the UK and it is difficult to know what impact such a step would have here.
“We found that banning travel from various countries during the pandemic did not finally stop viruses from circulating around the world,” Professor Pollard told the BBC.
But there are concerns that the spread of infection may provide more opportunities for the virus to mutate.
Countries that plan to test travelers say the policy will help detect worrying new variants early and prevent an increase in cases.