Washington — Biden’s management is preparing to ease COVID-19 testing restrictions for travelers from China starting Friday, according to two other people familiar with the decision.
The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration canceled testing requirements as cases, hospitalizations and deaths declined in China and the United States piling up more data on the outbreak.
The restrictions were put in place on Dec. 28 and went into effect Jan. 5 amid a surge in infections in China after the country particularly eased pandemic restrictions and U. S. fitness officials eased the pandemic. the actual number of infections and deaths. The Washington Post was the first to report Tuesday on the administration’s expected decision.
At the time, U. S. officials also said the restriction was mandatory to protect American citizens and communities because the Chinese government lacked transparency about the scale of the outbreak or variants circulating in China.
As part of its response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year expanded genomic surveillance at several U. S. airports. The U. S. government collects voluntary samples from passengers aboard many weekly flights from China and sewage aboard aircraft. The traveler-based genomic surveillance program continues to monitor travelers from China and more than 30 other countries.
Rules imposed in January require passengers traveling to the U. S. to be able to stay in the U. S. U. S. citizens from China, Hong Kong, and Macau make a COVID-19 check no later than two days in advance and provide a negative check before boarding your flight. The check applies to anyone 2 years of age. and seniors, adding U. S. citizens.
This was also implemented for other people traveling from China through a third country and other people connecting through the United States when heading to other destinations. a negative control result.
Airlines were left with confirmation of negative tests and recovery documentation before passengers boarded.
China has experienced infections and deaths after abandoning its “zero COVD” strategy in early December following occasional public protests against a policy that has confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to step down.
But as China eased its strict rules, infections and deaths surged, and parts of the country for weeks saw their hospitals hit by help from inflamed patients. However, the Chinese government has been slow to release information on the number of deaths and infections.
The U. S. resolution The U. S. government to lift restrictions comes at a time when the U. S. is in the U. S. The US and China are tense. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon last month after crossing the U. S. mainland. Biden’s management also made U. S. intelligence findings public. The U. S. network raises considerations that Beijing plans to supply Russia with weapons for its ongoing war against Ukraine.
Earlier Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned that Beijing and Washington were heading for “conflict and confrontation” if the United States changed course.
Qin’s comments came here a day after Xi, in a sharp speech, said that “Western countries led by the United States have implemented a whole containment, encirclement and repression of China. “
The White House has sought to downplay Beijing’s hot rhetoric.
“There is no replacement in the U. S. position regarding this bilateral relationship,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “The president believes those tensions clearly want to be recognized, but they can be resolved. “