Australia brought COVID-19 tests for travelers from China despite the country’s most sensible medical official opposing the move, according to a recently released letter.
In a letter sent Saturday to Health Minister Mark Butler, Australia’s lead medical officer, Paul Kelly, said there was no public fitness justification for introducing new travel requirements for those arriving from China.
Kelly said the peak of past vaccination and infection in Australia, and the fact that the BF. 7 Omicron subvariant that gave the impression of causing cases in China was already circulating in the country, among other reasons, meant there were “insufficient reasons for public suitability. ” for the new rules.
There was a “strong consensus” among Australian and New Zealand state fitness officials that China’s restrictions would be “inconsistent with existing national technique for managing COVID-19 and disproportionate to risk,” he said.
Kelly advised that instead of travel restrictions, the government expand wastewater control, introduce voluntary sampling for foreign arrivals, and get better tracking of others who test positive for COVID-19 and have recently traveled abroad.
Despite the advice, Butler announced the next day that travelers from China, adding Hong Kong and Macau, will need to test negative for COVID within 48 hours of travel.
Butler said he made the decision “out of an abundance of caution, given the dynamic and evolving scenario in China and the possibility of new variants emerging in a superior transmission environment. “
Butler said at the time that he had been “widely briefed” through Kelly, but that he gave details about the nature of the recommendation he received. Butler has since defended the measures as “very modest” and a “balanced decision. “
Kelly’s letter to Butler posted on the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care online expired Monday night.
Australia’s resolution followed the advent of measures through the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Japan, Taiwan, Italy, France and Spain.
Canada also announced Saturday that it would begin arrivals from China from Jan. 5.
Authorities have raised considerations that the surge in cases in China following Beijing’s dismantling of its strict “zero-COVID” policy may lead to the emergence of new, more harmful variants.
Some fitness experts have criticized the testing requirements, saying they would possibly do little to prevent the spread of new variants and xenophobia.
China criticized the regulations as “unnecessary,” while Chinese state media called the measures “baseless” and “discriminatory. “
China is about to lift its quarantine for arrivals from January 8 after 3 years of strict border controls, but will continue to subject all arrivals to COVID testing.