Last Update: January 03, 2023, 21:02 IST
France, Spain and Italy have already announced independent measures to introduce tougher COVID-19 rules for travelers arriving from China (Image: Reuters)
Government spokesman Mao Ning said the EU’s offer of help, including vaccine donations, was equally welcome, as Beijing insisted the situation was “under control” and medical provisions “in sufficient supply”.
The European Union and China moved closer to a political impasse over the COVID-19 crisis on Tuesday, with Beijing vehemently rejecting travel restrictions some EU countries have begun to implement that may well take place in the coming days. can be increased.
Government spokesman Mao Ning said the EU’s offer of help, including vaccine donations, was equally welcome, as Beijing insisted the situation was “under control” and medical provisions “in sufficient supply”.
And while the 27-nation bloc was inching closer to imposing some sort of ban on travelers from China, Beijing laid out clearly what to expect in return.
“We firmly oppose attempts to manipulate COVID measures for political purposes and will retaliate based on the principle of reciprocity,” Mao said.
Nevertheless, the European Union was intent on taking some sort of joint action to ensure that travelers from China would not transmit any potential new variants to the continent.
Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, warned in a statement: “Travellers to China need to be prepared for decisions to be taken at short notice.”
Several member states announced individual efforts last week. At the same time, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control stressed that the situation in China does not pose an immediate overall health threat.
“Variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU, and thus are not challenging to the immune response”, it said in its latest impact study published on Tuesday. Other scientists have also said that travel restrictions will have little effect on the disease, but they also stressed the value of looking for possible variants that are not occurring in Europe at this time.
Yet for fear of being caught unawares like the start of the global pandemic in early 2020, medical experts from EU member states were already preparing for possible action by an integrated political crisis response meeting on Wednesday, where EU-wide measure entry requirements can be decided.
Over the past week, EU countries have reacted in a chaotic cascade of national measures to the crisis in China, disregarding an earlier commitment to act in unity before anything else.
Italy was essentially the first member of the European Union coronavirus Testing for airline passengers arriving from China, but many others have said such measures may not be the best option to protect local populations now that new variants from China have already been infecting Europe for several months. are present in
France, Spain and Italy have already announced independent measures to introduce tougher COVID-19 rules for travelers arriving from China.
The French government is requiring negative tests, and is urging French citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to China. France is also reintroducing the mask requirement on flights from China to France.
The Spanish government said all air travelers arriving from China would need a negative test or proof of vaccination.
The United States announced new COVID-19 testing requirements on Wednesday for all travelers from China, joining some Asian countries that have imposed restrictions because of a surge in infections.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)