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In a misleading diplomatic move, the bloc has pleaded with its 27 members to institute restrictions as Chinese tourists prepare to return to global destinations.
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By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union “strongly encouraged” its 27 member countries Wednesday to require a negative covid-19 check for passengers boarding flights from China to the region, amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the country and Beijing’s lifting of draconian restrictions.
The bloc’s recommendation, in a unified policy, came after three major European tourist destinations (France, Italy and Spain), as well as Britain, brought testing and other requirements for travelers from China.
This resolution would bring a difficult measure back to the pandemic era for travelers that the tourism and aviation industries hoped would be a thing of the past.
European Union countries are strongly advised to introduce, for all passengers departing China for member states, the requirement of a negative Covid-19 result taken no later than 48 hours before departure from China, the council said.
It came from a committee composed of fitness officials from all 27 countries, as well as fitness experts and advisors. This follows a US announcement.
The U. S. panel, which met to set bloc-wide policies related to travel requirements during the pandemic, pledged to meet later this month to assess the situation.
“Member states agreed on a coordinated precautionary method in light of Covid-19 developments in China, especially given the need for sufficient and reliable data and the relaxation of travel restrictions through China as of January 8,” the committee said.
The move brings a sense of déjà vu to Europe, where the worst of the pandemic has largely come after more than two million deaths, economic devastation and ultimately a vast and costly vaccination campaign.
It also threatens to further strain EU-China relations, which are already strained due to China’s implicit relationship with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
The Beijing government has denounced new Covid needs imposed through other countries on travelers arriving from China as unscientific or “excessive” and has threatened to take countermeasures.
Many experts and the World Health Organization have long argued that restrictions are not a truly effective way to control the spread of the coronavirus. And introducing strict requirements for ers can be a logistical, discriminatory and politically toxic burden.
However, WHO leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that such measures are “understandable” given China’s lack of transparency in its Covid data.
“In the absence of complete data from China, it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that can protect their populations,” Tedros wrote on Twitter.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Tuesday that reported infections in China were down from a record low on Dec. 2, but attributed the drop to a “lower number of tests conducted, resulting in fewer infections. “
“There is still a lack of reliable knowledge about covid-19 cases, hospital admissions, deaths, capacity and intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy in China,” he added.
The European Union is historically a popular destination for Chinese tourists. And member countries hoping for a return of Chinese tourism, after the market was practically closed for 3 years, rejoiced when the Beijing government announced it would ease restrictions, prompting a buildup in exit reserves.
This Sunday, for the first time since early 2020, the Chinese government will remove quarantine regulations for foreigners and ease restrictions on incoming flights.
It also restarted processing Chinese citizens’ passport programs for overseas tourism. Outbound flight bookings rose nearly 300% on Dec. 27, when the government announced changes to its border restrictions, according to information from Trip. com Group, a reservations company.
“After more than two years of strict Chinese coronavirus measures, the last major impediment to the freedom to live without restrictions has fallen,” Austria’s Tourism Minister Susanne Kraus-Winkler said in late December.
“For European and Austrian tourism, this portends the return of Asia’s main source market for the upcoming tourist seasons,” he added.
But the European Union is divided over how to deal with the rising number of cases in China. The biggest fear for the European government has been the possibility of a new variant emerging in China, but experts warn that forcing Chinese visitors to control or isolate prevent the flow of such a variant worldwide, if it emerges.
In Italy, sequencing of positive coronavirus samples taken from visitors arriving from China has not recorded any new variants, fitness officials said.
And the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which noted on Tuesday that no new variants had been recorded in China so far, said EU citizens had the highest degrees of immunity and vaccination as opposed to known variants in circulation, meaning the accumulation in infections in China “does not pose a challenge to the immune response” of other people in Europe.
However, U. S. councils have not been able to do so. The U. S. government on Wednesday called on governments to conduct random airport testing of travelers from China and read about debris from planes landing in Europe from China for the presence of coronavirus variants.
Alexandra Stevenson has contributed to the Hong Kong reports.
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