A growing number of countries have decided to impose controls on passengers arriving from China.
The government announced on Friday that France would impose a negative test for travelers departing from China. Faced with the explosion of cases of coronavirus infections in China, France joins Italy and Spain among the European countries imposing restrictions.
Travelers must bring proof of a negative test less than 48 hours before boarding. In addition, PCR tests will be carried out on arrival on a random basis from January 1, with positive samples subject to systematic sequencing in order to detect any new variants of the virus. Travelers “will have pledged” on departure “to self-isolate” if they test positive on arrival, the government source said. In planes coming from China, travelers will also have to wear a mask.
The full timetable for these measures is not yet known, but a decree by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will be published over the weekend “and notified to the European Commission and to EU member states”, indicates a government statement.
Despite the epidemic rebound, the Chinese authorities will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country on January 8, and allow Chinese people to travel abroad, after three years of frustration.
Many countries impose restrictions
“Flows from China are limited at this stage: we are talking about 3,000 people arriving in France per week, all at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport” near Paris, noted a government source.
But “they could increase in the coming days”, she observed.
According to another government source, France has “no element to speak of the existence of a new variant” in China. But the country, weakly immunized, is in a “very atypical situation” which leads the authorities to consider that it could be “a factor in the emergence of new variants of the virus”.
As a precaution, the United States and several countries, such as Japan and Israel, have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers coming from China. Neighboring South Korea took the same decision on Friday, effective until “February next year”, said its Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo.
“Understandable” measures, according to the WHO
These measures are “understandable” given the lack of information provided by Beijing, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“In the absence of complete information from China, it is understandable that countries take the measures they believe will protect their people,” he said.
Health authorities in China, for their part, assured Thursday that they had always published data “in a desire for openness and transparency”, according to comments quoted by the official news agency China news.
On Friday, only 5,515 new cases and one death were announced by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Figures that no longer seem to reflect reality, however, as widespread screening is no longer mandatory.
