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MEdia

January 3, 2023

Australia’s top health adviser urged government against restrictions on travelers from China

Australia’s top medical officer advised the government against imposing any restrictions on travelers coming from China, a day before the health minister announced new testing requirements, internal documents show.

January 2, 2023

Starting Thursday, air travellers from China, Hong Kong or Macao will have to show a negative COVID test before boarding flights to Canada.

Canada has joined a growing list of countries requiring air travellers from China to provide a negative test for COVID-19. But many scientists say this will actually do little to protect Canadians. We dig deeper into this policy, which kicks in on Thursday, with a local expert on pandemics.

January 1, 2023

Canada's COVID-19 restrictions for air travellers from China questioned by experts

"If there's a new variant, or just high levels of COVID in certain places, the rate of direct introduction from those places will probably be somewhat reduced by requiring negative tests, but it won't completely prevent importation," said Colijn, who is a Canada 150 Research Chair.

December 30, 2022

Chinese tourists are ready to travel abroad again. Here's why some countries are hesitant

Karen Grepin, an associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, said a country's best defense against potential variants was to focus on domestic policies protecting its own population -- such as stepping up vaccinations, maintaining social distancing and other basic public health measures. "In a lot of parts of the world, the pandemic feels like it's over ... but at the end of the day, (these measures) are ultimately what prevents the transmission of the virus," she said.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

December 30, 2022

Italy tests Chinese arrivals for covid

After two recent flights from China brought almost 100 coronavirus-infected passengers to Milan, Italy on Wednesday announced that all arrivals from China would be tested, with positive cases to isolate. The United States the same day mandated pre-departure testing for such passengers, days after Beijing moved to reopen its borders amid a spike in cases.

The Seattle Times

December 29, 2022

China Responds to U.S. COVID Testing Rule With a Collective Shrug

Karen Grépin, a global health policy expert at the University of Hong Kong, said that while the CDC’s new rule may prevent superspreader conditions on airplanes, it would not stop new variants — just as earlier bans on international travel did very little to stop the spread of the omicron variant.