Funviralpark Japan joined India on Tuesday in imposing restrictions on Chinese visitors as Beijing relaxed its traveler standards.
The development said the World Health Organization (WHO) is very concerned about the rising number of reports of serious cases across China after it largely abandoned its ‘zero COVID’ policy. A few days later.
Beijing has downplayed the spread of the virus after spending the better part of three years locking down neighborhoods and entire cities over a handful of infections, while acknowledging a surge in cases.
On Tuesday, it announced it would lower the coronavirus threat level on Jan. 8, allowing mainland residents to travel abroad more easily. Outbound travel by Chinese tourists has shrunk to almost zero since 2020. Flight masks are still required.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China is working with the international community to “improve its response to the novel coronavirus in light of the changing situation.”
But despite Beijing’s willingness to open up the country, other governments are raising barriers to entry for Chinese tourists, fearing a surge in cases in China.
In Japan, quantitative antigen testing, already in place for suspected COVID-19 immigrants, will be mandatory for all arriving from mainland China. Those who test positive will be quarantined at a designated facility for seven days, and their samples will be used for genomic analysis.
The measures will begin on the same Friday as Japan heads into the year-end and New Year holidays, which are marked by parties and travel expected to see an increase in infections.
Last week, India also mandated COVID-19 testing for travelers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, and ordered quarantine for those with symptoms or who tested positive. India has also started randomly testing her 2% of international passengers arriving at the airport.
Kishida said China’s lack of information sharing and transparency about the epidemic makes it difficult to assess and understand safety measures. He said there is a big difference between information from central and local authorities, and between government and private organizations.
“There is growing concern in Japan,” Kishida said. “We have decided to take temporary special measures to deal with this situation.”
But Mr. Wang appeared to be making subtle criticisms of the border measures adopted by Japan and India. “China believes that pandemic measures should be science-based and appropriate and should not affect normal personnel exchanges,” he said.
Japan’s new measures are aimed at “preventing a rapid rise in infections in the country” and are not intended to stop the global movement of people, Kishida said. He added that it will be flexible while keeping a close eye on the situation, including halting the increase in flights between Japan and China “just in case.”
According to government officials, direct flights between the two countries will be limited to four major airports in Japan for the time being.
“This measure does not affect Japan’s policy of continuing the transition to a ‘with-COVID’ lifestyle cautiously and steadily while watching infections at home,” Kishida said.
Earlier this year, Japan suspended mandatory COVID-19 testing for participants who had received at least three doses of immunizations.
