Requirements for Chinese travelers raise questions on fairness

The requirement of a negative coronavirus test by the United States and other countries for travelers from China has prompted questions about the policies' fairness.

The US will impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travelers from China beginning on Jan 5. All air passengers aged 2 and older will need a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong or Macao, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

US neighbor Canada so far will not require the test for visitors from China.

"The most important strategy right now is we need to improve our political and diplomatic communication with China," Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University, told The New York Times. He said he feared that the policy of President Joe Biden's administration would work "in the opposite direction".

James Wood, an infectious disease expert at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said China does not pose a large risk of a new variant.

"We've had a huge number of infections internationally," he told the Times. "That's a lot more infections than have occurred in China alone."

The European Union refrained on Thursday from immediately following EU member Italy in requiring coronavirus tests for airline passengers from China.

On social media, some questioned the fairness of the requirements being placed only on China.

"This policy would only make sense if they make EVERYONE traveling into the US show negative COVID tests, otherwise this is just racism plain and simple," wrote Frankie Huang on Twitter on Wednesday.

Australia is not requiring the tests.

"The information we have out of China, at least at the moment, is the variant that's circulating mostly and driving the rising cases in China is a variant that we've already seen in Australia … and it's mostly started to become less of a problem here," Paul Kelly, chief medical officer of Australia, was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

In New Zealand, a Ministry of Health spokesperson was quoted by The New Zealand Herald as saying: "At this stage, it has been assessed that international arrivals, including from China, do not significantly change the risk of COVID-19 in New Zealand, and the current public health measures remain appropriate for managing the pandemic."

Iris Su, a 22-year-old university student in New York City, said her parents, who live in Qingdao in East China, had been considering visiting her after the Lunar New Year holiday next month.

"Now, they aren't so sure," she told the Times. "They are a bit unhappy with the US restrictions."

Seeking common ground

Health officials from the 27-member EU bloc said they will continue talks on a common approach to travel rules. However, the EU's executive arm said the BF.7 Omicron variant prevalent in China was already circulating in Europe and that its threat had not significantly grown.

In the United Kingdom, Health Minister Will Quince said the "key threat" will be if there is any new COVID-19 variant from China. "There's no evidence (of one) at this point," Quince said. The UK does not require travelers from China to provide negative test results.

Professor Brigitte Autran, a vaccines expert for France's health ministry, told Radio Classique on Thursday that at a "scientific level", there is no reason at this stage to reimpose specific border controls. Agencies contributed to this story.