UK, Australia have no plans to impose Covid restrictions on travellers from China

In contrast to the precautionary steps many nations, including the United States, have taken, Britain on Thursday said it has no plans to impose any kind of curbs on travellers from China.As per an earlier report by the Telegraph, the nation was mulling over restrictions including requiring testing travellers for the deadly virus on arrival.

A spokesperson of the UK government said, "There are no plans to re-introduce COVID-19 testing or additional requirements for arrivals into the UK."

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Just a day earlier, on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister had said that restrictions were not something the nation was looking at.

Australia too as per a Reuters report said that it will make no change to its rules for travellers from China. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said they are consulting heath experts but at the moment there is no change in travel advice, adding that they are monitoring "the situation, as we continue to monitor the impact of COVID here in Australia as well as around the world."

Recent days have seen nations stepping up precautionary measures involving travellers from China. These restrictions come as this month Beijing abruptly eased its once stringent zero-Covid rules that left much of its population vulnerable to infection and its healthcare infrastructure overwhelmed.

The United States has made mandatory a negative COVID-19 result. Passengers from China will have to submit to the airline before boarding a negative Covid test that needs to be done two days before flying. Italy on the other hand has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China.

Malaysia has put in place additional tracking and surveillance measures, Japan said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival. Meanwhile, India's health ministry said that travellers coming from "selectcountries" will have to undergo mandatory RT-PCR tests, additionally, two per cent of international passengers will have to submit to random tests.

(With inputs from agencies)

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