Beginning Jan. 5, the United States will require negative COVID tests for all travelers coming from China. The measure is due to China's increase of cases and the lack of data provided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Since early December, following protests in major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the communist authorities have decided to to relax health restrictions, including their zero-COVID policy.
Since then, cases in China have skyrocketed. However, these cases are not reflected in the CCP's records, and the White House has doubts about the transparency of the data. According to information provided by China, during the last 28 days, there were 815,995 infections and 787 deaths from the virus. These figures mean an average of 30,000 cases and 28 deaths per day.
Starting Jan 5, 2023: Travelers flying to U.S. from China, or who have been in China in the past 10 days & are flying from certain airports, must show a negative #COVID19 test taken within 2 days before #travel to the US or documentation of recovery. https://t.co/VSJz2W6kPT pic.twitter.com/J9DujizieA
— CDC (@CDCgov) December 28, 2022
Lack of transparency
Considering the population density (more than 1.4 billion people), it is feared that the number of infections and deaths may be hundreds of thousands more than those reported. Recent news revealed how Chinese hospitals only count a COVID death when it results in pneumonia or respiratory failure, leaving aside all deaths from underlying ailments, including those from cardiovascular problems.
Therefore, the Biden administration made the decision to reimpose the precautionary travel restrictions, and people coming from China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, must show negative test results from no more than two days before flying. Other Asian countries close to China, such as India, Japan and Malaysia, had already announced the reimposition of such measures. The problem is that these are tests done in any laboratory in China, so the reliability is questionable.
In Europe, Italy has also brought back similar restrictions for China. The measures were implemented after half of the passengers on two flights from China ended up testing positive. According to the assessor of welfare of the Lombardy region, Guido Bertolaso, every second traveler was infected.
«UNO SU DUE POSITIVO AL COVID» 🚨
L'assessore al Welfare di Regione Lombardia, Guido #Bertolaso, annuncia i dati dei passeggeri provenienti dalla Cina: «Uno su due è positivo al covid»#Milano #28dicembre @RegLombardia #COVID @Bertolaso_Guido pic.twitter.com/3JSF0SMCeC
— Mi-Tomorrow (@MiTomorrow) December 28, 2022
