From January 5, air passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macao will have to show a negative corona test before entering the US.
China has significantly eased the corona restrictions, and it is expected that travel-loving Chinese will flock abroad in the coming time – at the same time as the infection in the country has exploded.
India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan have also introduced measures for travelers from China. Italy has asked the rest of the EU to do the same.
It is unlikely to be relevant in Norway now, the Directorate of Health believes.
TRAVEL FEVER: Chinese are expected to travel a lot in the future, both domestically and abroad, after three years of tough restrictions. Here from a train station in Beijing on December 28. Photo: Noel CELIS / AFP)
– There is currently a greater spread of infection internally in Norway than in many other countries, and very few people also travel from China to Norway compared to the travel activity between Nordic and European countries. Therefore, we have not considered special measures for travelers from China in the current situation, writes assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad in an email to TV 2.
– Follows developments very closely
January 22 is the Chinese New Year, which normally brings with it a great deal of travel activity in China. Nakstad expects that the celebration will increase the spread of infection internally in China.
For Norway, this poses little risk, he believes.
– But we follow developments in China very closely because the situation is unpredictable both in terms of virus spread, mutations and consumption of medical equipment, which in the worst case can affect access to similar equipment in the Norwegian health service.
INFECTION: There is high pressure on hospitals in China after a gigantic wave of infection broke out in the country in December. The picture shows employees at work in a hospital in Shanghai. Photo: ALY SONG / Reuters
China has stopped reporting cases of infection, admissions and deaths after the infection in the country exploded. There have been reports of overburdened hospitals and crematoria.
In other parts of the world, many have feared that a large spread could lead to new mutations of the coronavirus that will be more difficult to handle.
– As the population in China is less immunized through disease and vaccine than in most other countries, the coronavirus will probably meet less resistance on its way through Chinese society. It is likely that the virus will not change in the same way as it has in Europe over the past year, with new variants constantly “circumventing immunity”. Most likely, the virus variants that spread in China will change at roughly the same rate as in Europe and the USA in the first year of the pandemic, reassures Nakstad, who recently called the spread of infection in China a step in the right direction.
