The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) desires to make sure that the COVID-19 surge in China wouldn’t lead to a different pandemic wave within the country.
This week, the general public health agency announced that it might be requiring travelers flying from China to present negative COVID-19 test results before they’re allowed to board flights headed to the U.S.
The brand new requirement can be implemented in airports with flights to the US based within the People’s Republic of China, the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
The move is alleged to stop or slow the spread of COVID-19 within the country amid the present surge in cases in China and the Asian giant’s lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data.
Various sources reported that China has been downplaying the scale and severity of the surge in its country, making scientists from around the globe wonder and worry about what might be happening on the planet’s most populous nation.
Nevertheless, the U.K.-based health data firm Airfinity said Thursday that China has been witnessing around 9,000 deaths day by day amid the most recent surge within the country, twice the estimate from per week ago, based on Reuters.
COVID infections across China significantly increased in November and continued to accomplish that this month after Beijing officially dismantled its zero-COVID policies, allowing people to exit of their homes and putting an end to the lockdowns there.
Experts told the Latest York Times that the sheer speed of the virus’ spread would suggest the next variety of deaths. One city in China reported half one million cases in someday last week. One other city recorded one million.
The U.S. CDC said it might proceed to watch the situation and adjust its approach to travelers from China when mandatory. But for now, it’s desperate to decrease the possibilities of one other novel variant of concern from China entering the U.S.
The requirement can be implemented on Jan. 5. All air passengers two years and older from China could be required to get tested and present a negative PCR or antigen self-test result not more than two days before their departure. This requirement can be implemented for all, no matter nationality and vaccination status.