The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States announced on Wednesday that from 5 January all travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao must present a negative Covid-19 test result before entering the country.
CDC officials said that the requirement for testing will apply to all air travellers older than two years, regardless of their nationality and vaccination status.
The new measure will also apply to travellers from China who enter the US via a third country, and to those who connect through the US to other destinations.
The US will also ask passengers flying from Seoul, Toronto and Vancouver if they have been in China during the previous 10 days. If so, they will also have to submit a negative test within two days of their departure to the US.
Travellers will have to submit a negative test, or proof of full recovery of a recent Covid-19 infection, within two days of their departure.
The new US policy follows a similar restriction recently instituted in Japan, which requires negative Covid test results for any arriving passengers who had been in mainland China in the preceding week.
Taiwan will start testing all arrivals from mainland China for Covid-19 starting 1 January, and keep that protocol in place for at least a month, citing the threat posed by “unclear information” about the contagion’s spread.
South Korea, India and Italy have also tightened their rules for visitors from China.
China’s Covid outbreak has been worsening in recent days after the government lifted its “zero Covid” policy that was first imposed three years ago.
