According to the Chinese Gov, they have more cases of COVID but nobody is dying. BTW the US still averages about 300 deaths per day from COVID. Do I trust the data coming out of China? Sure!
Flying From China to U.S. Will Require Negative Covid Test
Federal health officials said the move reflects the coronavirus’s rapid spread in China
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By Dominique Mosbergen, WSJ
Updated Dec. 28, 2022 5:45 pm ET
The U.S. will require travelers from China to submit a negative Covid-19 test beginning Jan. 5, federal officials said.
The U.S. is concerned about the rapid spread of the virus that causes Covid-19 in China, which increases the potential for new variants, health officials said Wednesday. The officials said that China has provided limited surveillance data regarding the surge and that officials have declined U.S. offers to provide additional vaccines. Countries including Japan and Malaysia have also recently imposed restrictions on travelers from China.
Starting at midnight on Jan. 5, travelers 2 years old and older flying to the U.S. from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau will be required to get tested for Covid-19 no more than two days before departure, officials said. Passengers must present negative test results from either a PCR or rapid antigen test monitored by a healthcare provider, officials said. Travelers from China who are transiting through the U.S. must also present a negative test before arrival, officials said.
Officials in China have removed most of the strict preventive protocols they maintained throughout the pandemic.
As the virus spreads more widely, fever medications have been in short supply, patients have inundated hospitals and crematoria have been flooded with bodies, employees and relatives of people with the disease said.
The Biden administration has pressed China to share Covid-19 surveillance data more transparently, a senior administration official said.
Relatively high rates of Covid-19 vaccination and prior infection in the U.S. could reduce potential public-health risks posed by the surge in China, virologists said. But the possibility for new variants to emerge from such widespread infection could pose fresh challenges, said Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University.
“The low uptake of the most recently recommended booster vaccine dose leaves many in the U.S. at risk for Covid-19 and its consequences,” Dr. El-Sadr said.
Passengers flying to the U.S. from South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, as well as Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport, will also be required to provide a negative Covid-19 test before flying to the U.S. if they have visited China in the 10 days before their flight, U.S. officials said.
The Biden administration said in June that it would stop requiring travelers entering the U.S. to provide negative Covid-19 tests before arrival. The testing requirement rule was introduced by the Trump administration in January 2021 and tightened by the Biden administration.
Early in the pandemic, the Trump administration barred foreign nationals who had recently visited China from entering the U.S. and implemented quarantines for Americans who had traveled to the part of China where the virus began to spread rapidly in 2020.
Since late 2021, the U.S. has required all visitors to the U.S. who aren’t U.S. citizens, permanent residents or visitors to the U.S. with an immigrant visa to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Andrew Restuccia contributed to this article.
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