The US is considering taking new coronavirus precautions for people traveling from China, which has seen a rapid rise in infections as officials lift Covid Zero restrictions.
(Bloomberg) — The US is considering taking new coronavirus precautions for people traveling from China, which has seen a rapid rise in infections as officials lift Covid Zero restrictions.
US officials said the government is concerned about the surge of cases in China, and has raised questions about the transparency of data the country is reporting about the spread of the virus. The officials requested anonymity to discuss internal thinking.
Japan is now requiring a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China, while Malaysia has imposed new tracking and surveillance measures. The US is weighing similar steps, the officials said, as a way to prevent further spread.
Discontent with Covid Zero sparked protests in China, leading authorities to move rapidly toward ending those policies and three years of self-isolation from the rest of the world. Yet the speed of those changes has seen infections surge.
Read More: China Reopens Borders to World in Removing Last Covid Curbs
China has announced it will no longer subject inbound travelers to quarantine starting Jan. 8. People arriving in China will only be required to obtain negative test results within 48 hours of departure, the country’s National Health Commission said in a Monday statement.
At the same time, China is experiencing the world’s largest Covid-19 outbreak, raising concerns among public-health officials worldwide. Almost 37 million people may have been infected with the virus on a single day last week, according to estimates from the government’s top health authority.
US officials said they were considering new travel precautions based on consultations with public health experts and international partners. They said the talks have been prompted in part by concerns over the lack of genomic sequencing data that could help identify the emergence of a new variant.
Health experts have said they’re worried that the virus’s unabated spread could spawn a dangerous new variant for the first time since the omicron strain caused infections to surge more than a year ago.
China will also reduce Covid case reporting from daily to monthly, an official from the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention told the People’s Daily in a Tuesday interview.
–With assistance from Madison Muller.
(Updates with more information and context, starting in the fifth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
