Covid measures
Calls to impose travel restrictions on Chinese travellers ‘extremely disappointing’, says global airline industry
The International Air Transport Association has labelled calls for imposing Covid testing and other restrictions on travellers from China as ‘extremely disappointing’ and a knee-jerk reinstatement of measures that have proven ineffective over the past three years.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the airline industry’s global lobby group said several countries were introducing Covid testing and other measures for travellers from China, even though the virus was already circulating widely within their borders.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Willie Walsh said, “Research undertaken around the arrival of the Omicron variant concluded that putting barriers in the way of travel made no difference to the peak spread of infections. At most, restrictions delayed that peak by a few days. If a new variant emerges in any part of the world, the same situation would be expected.
“That’s why governments should listen to the advice of experts, including the World Health Organization (WHO), that advise against travel restrictions. We have the tools to manage Covid-19 without resorting to ineffective measures that cut off international connectivity, damage economies and destroy jobs.
“Governments must base their decisions on ‘science facts’ rather than ‘science politics’.”
US restrictions from Thursday
Earlier Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the White House said the moves to impose Covid restrictions on travellers from China were justified on public health grounds as the country was experiencing a surge in cases.
“There’s no cause for retaliation here. Just because countries around the world are taking prudent health measures to protect their citizens, that’s what you’re seeing from us and others,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a media briefing.
“This decision is based on public health and science,” she said. “This is coming from our experts here and in other countries.”
The US, Australia, Italy, France and other countries have announced they will require travellers from China to show a negative Covid test before entering. The new US restrictions take effect on Thursday.
China has threatened to hit back at nations that impose the travel restrictions on its people, dismissing the measures as “political goals”.
“We believe that some countries’ entry restrictions targeting only China lack scientific basis and some excessive measures are unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a briefing in Beijing, as reported by Bloomberg.
Covid cases in China have soared after the country abandoned its “zero-Covid” policy, allowing the virus to run rampant.
#CHINA: The #COVID outbreak is reportedly forcing people to burn the bodies of their families members on the streets as a result of emergency services and crematoriums’ inability to accommodate the mass numbers of deceased. Heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/Q5TYcG5VJG
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) January 3, 2023
The EU and US have offered mRNA vaccines to China, which Beijing has publicly turned down, saying it does not need the help.
China has mainly used its domestically produced vaccines, CoronaVac, made by Sinovac, and Sinopharm, which have been shown to be less effective than the mRNA vaccines widely used in the West, made by Pfizer and Moderna.
China has low vaccination rates, especially in vulnerable populations, and has locked down its people for so long that experts believe the country has not picked up “herd immunity” to protect them from being exposed to the virus through other people.
The US and other countries have also raised concerns about the transparency of China’s data on the spread of the virus.
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Australia has adopted travel restrictions out of an “abundance of caution”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters that there was certainly “a lot of concern around the global health community and the global economy about the transparency and quality of data that we see out of China on Covid”.
From 5 January, Australia will require a negative Covid test taken within 48 hours for passengers departing mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
New Zealand, though, said it had no plans to require visitors from China to provide a negative Covid test because it believed there was minimal public health risk.
The WHO, meanwhile, has said official statistics from China “under-represent” the true impact of the Covid outbreak in the country, as reported by AFP.
On social media, footage emerged of relatives reportedly forced to burn the bodies of their family members on the streets, due to emergency services and crematoriums being overwhelmed. BM/DM
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