New restrictions imposed for arrivals from China. Is there a method to this madness?
Inconsistent, confusing, illogical set of rules & restrictions for international arrivals from China.
China stopped issuing travel and tourist visas and passports to its own citizens in early 2020. Nearly three years of isolation from the rest of the world. Ahead of the Chinese Lunar New year, China is just about to open up and countries have already started imposing restrictions on passengers arriving from China.
Different sets of rules have been imposed by different countries on passengers from China. There is no uniformity or logic to it.
South Korea , Pakistan, USA, Australia, Canada, UK, India, Japan, Spain, Italy, Philippines, France etc — all have different rules.
Some require RTPCR result regardless of vaccination status. Some countries exempt RTPCR testing for those who are double vaxxed. Some check temperature and then conduct RTPCR if the person is detected to have an elevated temperature (not clear what the threshold is). Some conduct random testing at airports. Others test wastewater & genome testing. Some countries require results of RTPCR test taken 48 hours prior to arrival (Australia) and some allow up to 72 hours (India). Some countries conduct RTPCR after arrival. Some countries only test 2% of arrivals from China.
The most extreme policy comes from the Kingdom of Morocco (a country in north west Africa) which has simply banned all passengers from China. Quite extreme.
In its Press release, The Kingdom of Morocco has said that they have closely followed the development of the Covid pandemic in the People's Republic of China. In light to avoid a new wave of contamination in Morocco and all its consequences, the Moroccan authorities have decided to prohibit access to the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco for all travelers, whatever their nationality, coming from the People's Republic of China.
The kingdom of Morocco has taken pains to clarify that ‘This exceptional measure in no way taints the sincere friendship between the two peoples and the strategic partnership between the two countries and to which the Kingdom remains strongly attached.’
The variant BF7 has been found to be circulating in India for nearly two years and India went unscathed. So authorities have advised there is no need to panic as India has already attained immunity. in addition to China, India requires passengers from Singapore South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong , Thailand also to provide 72 hour prior RTPCR result. This is not the case with other countries where only those arriving from China face restrictions. China has alleged that this is discriminatory policy.
Australia is closer to Singapore and yet there are no restrictions for those arriving from Singapore. Additionally, unlike India which has allowed up to 72 hours of time, Australia requires passengers from China to get RTPCR results of test conducted within 48 hours of arrival. This could prove quite challenging to passengers especially if the transit is for 12 hours or so (which is quite common in this season).
The crazy thing is the variant is now currently already circulating in USA.
So it makes no sense when countries test only those from China. It makes no sense to impose these restrictions when these countries have declared that they are now going to live with Covid and also boast of a very high vaccination rate.
There is no logic or consistency to these rules and restrictions. There is no scientific basis for this alarmism. There is no method to this madness. We are looking for a problem where one does not exist especially given how most of these countries have already apparently started ‘living with Covid’.
References:
https://asianews.network/rt-pcr-test-mandatory-for-flyers-from-6-countries-including-china/
—The Solitary Reaper
There was no medical reason to call it a pandemic from day 1.. profiteering from panic is it’s real name..