China Covid surge puts world on alert: Canada, Australia, Morocco impose restrictions on Chinese travellers

Canberra: As China continues to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases following its relaxation of stringent ‘zero-Covid’ rules, authorities around the world have started imposing or considering restrictions and curbs on travellers from the Asian nation. Canada, Australia, Morocco have added to the list of countries to impose Covid restrictions on people from China visiting these countries. The countries imposing regulations on travellers from China have cited a lack of information from the Xi Jinping government on variants and said that they are concerned about a wave of infections. Meanwhile, China has rejected criticism and said that it has been transparent about the its Covid data and said it expects future mutations to be potentially more transmissible but less severe. Countries imposing Covid-19 curbs on travellers from China Australia Travellers from China visiting Australia will have to submit a negative Covid-19 test from 5 January. Canada Chinese traveller to Canada must test negative for Covid-19 no more than two days before departure, Ottawa has announced. Morocco A ban has been imposed on people arriving in Morocco from China, irrespective of their nationality, from 3 January to avert any new wave of coronavirus infections. India Travellers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Thailand arriving in India have to mandatorily furnish a Covid-19 negative test report. Passengers from these countries will be quarantined if they show symptoms or test positive. United States From 5 January, the US will impose mandatory Covid-19 tests on travellers from China. All air passengers will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau. Britain The UK has asked for a compulsory pre-departure negative Covid-19 test from passengers from China as of 5 January. France Travellers from China arriving France will have to provide a negative Covid test result less than 48 hours before departure. France, from 1 January, has also started carrying out random PCR Covid tests upon arrival on some travellers coming from China. Italy Italy has ordered Covid-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for travellers visiting from China. Malpensa, Milan’s main airport, has already started screeing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai. Japan Japan has asked for a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travellers from mainland China. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days. The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China. Spain The Spain government has said that travellers from China will have to furnish a negative Covid-19 test report or a full course of vaccination against the disease upon arrival. Malaysia In Malaysia, all inbound travellers for fever and test wastewater from aircraft arriving from China will be screened for Covid-19. Taiwan Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said all passengers on direct flights from China and by boat at two offshore islands will have to take PCR tests upon arrival. South Korea Travellers from China visiting South Korea will have to provide negative Covid test results before departure. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.