U.S. to require COVID-19 tests for travelers from China as variant fears grow – National | 24CA News
The U.S. introduced new COVID-19 testing necessities Wednesday for all vacationers from China, becoming a member of different nations imposing restrictions due to a surge of infections.
The improve in instances throughout China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. China’s “zero COVID” insurance policies had saved China’s an infection fee low however fueled public frustration and crushed financial progress.
In an announcement explaining the restrictions, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited the surge in infections and what it stated was an absence of satisfactory and clear info from China, together with genomic sequencing on the viral strains circulating within the nation.
“These data are critical to monitor the case surge effectively and decrease the chance for entry of a novel variant of concern,” the CDC stated.
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Some scientists are involved the COVID-19 surge in China might unleash a brand new coronavirus variant on the world which will or is probably not just like those circulating now. That’s as a result of each an infection is one other likelihood for the virus to mutate.
“What we want to avoid is having a variant enter into the U.S. and spread like we saw with delta or omicron,” stated Matthew Binnicker, director of medical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
But the CDC’s motion could also be much less about stopping a brand new variant from crossing U.S. borders and extra about growing stress on China to share extra info, stated Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious illness epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, including he hopes the restrictions “aren’t kept in place longer than they need to be.”
“I don’t think it’s going to have a major impact in slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Dowdy stated. “We have a whole lot of transmission of COVID-19 here within our borders already.”
Beginning Jan. 5, all vacationers to the U.S. from China will probably be required to take a COVID-19 take a look at not more than two days earlier than journey and supply a adverse take a look at earlier than boarding their flight. The testing applies to anybody 2 years and older, together with U.S. residents.
Other international locations have taken comparable steps in an effort to maintain infections from spreading past China’s borders. Japan would require a adverse COVID-19 take a look at upon arrival for vacationers from China, and Malaysia introduced new monitoring and surveillance measures. India, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus checks for guests from China.
Global News requested Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s workplace instructed Global News if Canada will observe swimsuit and introduce comparable testing necessities for vacationers from China.
“Our government continues to monitor COVID-19 numbers and we continue to follow the advice of public health officials,” a spokesperson stated.
“As of now, travelers are not required to provide a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Canada, however we continue to monitor the situation and keep Canadians safe.”
Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 22, is normally China’s busiest journey season, and China introduced Tuesday it’ll resume issuing passports for tourism for the primary time because the begin of the pandemic in 2020.
The U.S. motion is a return to necessities for some worldwide vacationers. The Biden administration lifted the final of such mandates in June. At that point, the CDC continued to advocate that folks boarding flights to the U.S. get examined near departure time and never journey if they’re sick.
Early within the pandemic, the U.S. barred entry to foreigners touring from China, weeks after the virus first emerged there three years in the past. Americans had been allowed to return house and flights from China had been funneled to chose airports the place passengers had been screened for sickness. But the virus already was spreading within the U.S. amongst folks with no journey historical past.
AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
