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Passengers arriving to the UK from China will need a negative Covid test before they travel following surging cases of the virus in the country.
It is understood that the Government will make the announcement about the need for pre-departure Covid tests later.
The move will bring the UK in line with other countries around the world, such as Israel, Spain and Italy, who have announced they would impose Covid tests for travellers from China.
This evening, the French Government has also announced all passengers arriving from China will need to provide a negative Covid test taken 48 hours before travelling.
Italy began screening all new arrivals from China for Covid after health officials found half of passengers on two flights into Milan from the nation were infected. Pictured: Milan airport today
The UK Government is expected to bring in new travel rules that mean anyone travelling from China will need to show a negative Covid test 48 hours before they embark on their journey
The UK Government was resisting calls to introduce testing but is now making new arrangements.
Sources say the move is precautionary and has been prompted over concerns over China’s transparency with the vaccine and data.
Ministers had said the situation was being kept under review as Beijing announced plans to start reissuing passports and visas for overseas trips.
Some Tory MPs had called for a more robust response from the Government, even as the chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Professor Andrew Pollard, said the imposition of travel restrictions was unlikely to stop variants reaching the UK.
Reports from The Times and The Telegraph said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the discussion to introduce testing once again.
The Our World in Data graph shows the daily confirmed Covid cases in China. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week stopped reporting daily cases, without providing a reason. It reported around 5,000 cases per day last week and a small number of deaths. However, some estimates suggest China is actually experiencing one million cases per day and 5,000 deaths
Italy was among the first to impose the new travel rule after 50 per cent of passengers on two flights into Milan from China tested positive for Covid, prompting the Italian government to bring mandatory testing back.
Of 62 passengers on the first flight subjected to testing, 35 came back positive, while 62 out of 120 tested positive from the second fight.
It comes amid fears that Beijing has under-reported its cases and withheld virus samples, reducing the likelihood of any new variant being spotted or reported.
Scientists across the globe are urging the hardline state to share more genetic sequences to check for possible signs of a new variant, warning that a new mutation could result in a more aggressive virus that existing vaccines might be less efficient against protecting.
Pictured: A Covid patient being moved on a wheelchair at Tianjin First Center Hospital in Tianjin, north east China, on December 28
A medical worker attends to a patient at the emergency department of Ganyu District People’s Hospital in Lianyungang, north east China, on December 28, amid the Covid outbreak
Masked travellers check their passports as they line up at the check-in desk at Beijing Capital International airport today
Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Daniel Lopez-Acuna said he believed Western countries should insist on negative PCR test results before accepting travellers from China, to reduce the risk of transmission.
Even countries with high rates of immunisation could be at risk, he said, as existing vaccines might be less powerful against a potential new variant.
He told the BBC World Service: ‘The risk of the high transmission in China is the emergence of a new variant that could escape through the vaccine efficacy and could be more aggressive and more virulent.’
China has reportedly shared fewer than 1,000 Covid virus samples with the international scientific community over the past month, despite a rapid rise in cases after it eased lockdown measures.
However, officials estimated 250 million people are likely to have contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to leaked notes.
Last week, a hospital in Shanghai predicted that there will 5.43 million people with the virus in the country’s largest city by the end of next week.
Shanghai has a population of 25 million residents.
On January 8, China will bring to the end its own restrictions for passengers, which have been in place for nearly three years.
It’s Zero-Covid policy will come to an end with the country saying it will fully reopen its borders for the first time since March 2020.
This means international travellers will not have to quarantine upon entering the country.
Since the pandemic began, China’s official death count stands at 5,241 – much smaller than the deaths caused by Covid in other countries.
This is a breaking story more to follow …
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