Paris France.- Countries with important hubs of air connections -such as the United Kingdom and France- decided this Friday to require anti-Covid tests for travelers from China, due to concerns considered “understandable” by the WHO in the face of the new wave of the pandemic in the Asian giant.
Spain, South Korea and Israel also announced measures similar to those already adopted in previous days by the United States, Italy, Japan, India and Taiwan, among other important business and tourist destinations.
Decisions have been accelerated by the rapid spread of Covid-19 in China since the Asian giant suddenly lifted all health restrictions to control the pandemic at the beginning of the month.
Both the United Kingdom and France indicated that they will require travelers from China to have a negative Covid test before their arrival in the country.
Other random tests will be carried out in France after landing and positive tests will be sequenced in order to detect possible new variants of the virus, a government official said at a press conference.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) considered on Thursday that these tests are “unjustified” in the European Union (EU), given the high level of immunity of the population of the block and the presence of them. variants of Covid than in China.
But Western scientists have expressed fear that the rapid spread of the virus in China is fueling the emergence of new variants.
Germany precisely called for intensifying surveillance at European airports in order to detect them.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the controls are “understandable”, because “they will serve to protect the population” in the face of “the lack of information from China” about the evolution of the pandemic.
The Chinese government instead judged that the precautions taken are the result of “exaggeration, defamation and political manipulation” orchestrated by the Western press.
“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has shared reliable information and data with the international community, including the WHO, in an open and transparent manner,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.
