Most EU nations back pre-departure COVID testing for China travelers

BRUSSELS — Most European Union (EU) nations favor introducing pre-departure COVID testing for travelers from China, the European Fee mentioned on Tuesday, as Beijing plans to elevate journey restrictions on its residents regardless of a wave of COVID infections.

The widespread EU strategy emerged after a gathering on Tuesday of the Well being Safety Committee, an EU advisory physique of nationwide well being consultants from the EU’s 27 nations and chaired by the Fee.

“The overwhelming majority of countries are in favor of pre-departure testing,” a Fee spokesman mentioned.

“These measures would need to be targeted at the most appropriate flights and airports and carried out in a coordinated way to ensure their effectiveness,” he mentioned.

The Fee on Tuesday ready a draft proposal for the talks, which included a suggestion for masks sporting on flights from China, wastewater monitoring for plane arriving from China, genomic surveillance at airports and elevated monitoring and sequencing and elevated EU vigilance on testing and vaccination.

“This will now be revised and adopted based on the input of (EU) Member States,” the Fee spokesman mentioned, including extra talks on the measures would happen at one other assembly of EU well being officers on Wednesday afternoon.

The spokesman mentioned all EU nations agreed they wanted a coordinated strategy to the altering scenario in China and to take care of implications of elevated journey from China to Europe after China lifts its stringent pandemic polices on Jan. 8.

The European Heart for Illness Prevention and Management mentioned final week it didn’t at the moment advocate measures on travelers from China.

It mentioned the variants circulating in China had been already within the European Union, that EU residents had comparatively excessive vaccination ranges and the potential for imported infections was low in comparison with each day infections within the EU, with healthcare programs at the moment coping. — Reuters

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