Countries are imposing new COVID-19 measures on travellers coming from China as international travel resumes.
In the EU, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden have so far stepped up rules on travellers from China in response to rising cases.
While EU countries have so far failed to agree on a coordinated approach to the changing COVID-19 situation, the bloc has ‘strongly’ encouraged a pre-departure test requirement. Other recommended measures for flights arriving in the EU from China include wearing a mask onboard flights, enhanced cleaning of aircraft, vaccination of crew members, random testing of arrivals, sequencing of positive tests, and waste water monitoring at airports to detect infection levels and new variants.
Which European countries have introduced COVID-19 requirements on travel from China?
Italy was the first EU country to tighten restrictions, ordering COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China, the health minister announced last month.
Spain became the second European country to announce COVID restrictions on travellers from China, who will now need to provide a negative test result or proof of vaccination.
After initially saying it was unnecessary to increase border controls, France has announced it will require a negative PCR or antigen test taken less than 48 hours before boarding for all travellers coming from China as of 5 January. Sweden, too, has now…
