case numbers are increasing
London requires negative corona tests for travelers from China
Travelers from China will have to present negative corona test results again from January 5 before boarding a plane to England.
ARCHIVE – icon image. An employee holds PCR test tubes in his hands in a corona test laboratory. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
A government spokesman confirmed this to journalists in London on Tuesday.
Hong Kong will also be affected by the new regulation, with details to be announced soon.
“We have seen an increase in cases there and this decision was also made because there is a lack of comprehensive health data from China,” the spokesman said.
He stressed that random tests should also be carried out on incoming travelers from China. The main purpose of this is to detect new corona variants. According to current knowledge, however, the same variants circulated in China as in Great Britain. “So far there is no evidence of other variants in China (…)”, the spokesman continued.
Beijing had criticized the introduction of new test rules as “discriminatory” after the first countries had tightened their rules for travelers from China for fear of possible new virus variants.
(SDA)