Passengers travelling from China to the UK will now require negative Covid tests
30 December 2022, 18:04 | Updated: 30 December 2022, 19:34
People arriving to the UK from China will be required to have negative Covid tests before flying, amid fears of a new variant emerging.
Rishi Sunak made the decision tonight after China's president Xi Jinping lifted the ban of international travel from January 8.
The UK becomes the latest nation to introduce Covid screening for travellers coming from China after cases in the country rocketed following Beijing's move to relax its zero-Covid policy.
The US, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Korea and Taiwan have already announced testing for arrivals for those arriving from the country.
UK-based health data company Airfinity has said around 9,000 people were probably dying each day from the virus in China, and expects infections to hit a first peak on January 13 with 3.7 million cases per day.
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The true scale of China's daily cases and deaths is not known, as officials have ended the requirement for cases to be reported, and altered classifications for deaths from coronavirus.
The announcement over the UK's decision to impose testing restrictions has not yet been formally made, but defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed today that the government was reviewing the whether testing was needed for arrivals from China.
Asked if the government would consider imposing restrictions, Mr Wallace said: "The government is looking at that, it's under review, we noticed obviously what the US has done and India and I think Italy has looked at it."
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom said in a Twitter post yeserday that it was "understandable" some countries were bringing in restrictions.
“In the absence of comprehensive information from China, it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe may protect their populations," he wrote.
The public health official said the organisation needs more detailed information to make a full risk assessment of the Covid situation in China.
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