EU Urges Covid Travel Screening for Passengers From China

Richard Bravo
·3 min read
1

(Bloomberg) -- European Union member states recommended new restrictions on passengers traveling into the bloc from China but stopped short of adding new rules for flights.

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An EU crisis response group on Wednesday “strongly encouraged” countries to adopt pre-departure Covid testing, encourage masking on flights and implement wastewater checks as a response to the rampant Covid outbreak in China.

“The member states agree to issue advice to incoming and outgoing international travelers coming from or destined for China, as well as to aircraft and airport personnel, regarding personal hygiene and health measures,” according to a statement from Sweden, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

Sweden said Thursday that it would mandate negative Covid-19 tests for travelers from China starting Jan. 7. Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke also said his country will impose a similar requirement for passengers on direct flights from China, the Belga news agency reported.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman warned earlier this week that the country would hit back at nations that placed Covid restrictions on its travelers for “political goals.”

The EU recommendation comes as countries including the US, France, Italy and Spain have already imposed stricter measures on travelers entering from China. A majority of EU countries back mandatory pre-departure testing, according to a European Commission spokesman, and many have called for a joint EU-wide policy.

The new recommendations don’t impose new rules, but member states agreed to review the situation in mid-January.

Covid Zero

China has been loosening its strict Covid Zero strategy after nearly three years — one that made entering the Asian nation very difficult because it required all arrivals to isolate for days in hotels or camps. Beijing still requires incoming travelers to test for Covid before boarding flights for China.

The new advice from the EU goes beyond the recommendations from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which said last week that screening rules and travel restrictions weren’t justified. “A surge in cases in China is not expected to impact the Covid-19 epidemiological situation” in Europe, it said.

Airlines slammed the idea of introducing new restrictive measures that might cut into passengers ability to travel freely.

The International Air Transport Association, the airline industry’s global lobby group, said travel restrictions have been shown to delay the peak of new waves of coronavirus by only a few days, rather than halting them, while at the same time strangling international connectivity, damaging economies and destroying jobs.

“Governments must base their decisions on science facts rather than science politics,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh said.

While the unexpectedly rapid reopening of China even as the omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to rage there could herald a stronger-than-forecast revival of Asian and long-haul flying, border curbs have been shown to be a major drag on bookings.

--With assistance from Jonas Ekblom.

(Updates with Swedish move to require testing in fourth paragraph)

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