Rabat – A Thursday meeting between EU leaders failed to establish a European consensus on whether or not the bloc’s countries should implement more stringent testing on Chinese visitors.
Italy had led the charge to introduce mandatory COVID-19 testing for all Chinese arrivals at its airports. It had urged the EU to follow the Italian example, with newly elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stating that Rome’s policies would be “ineffective,” if Europe would implement similar measures.
The EU and its European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) seemed to agree that a cohesive policy among EU members is warranted, yet the ECDC advised that enhanced efforts to test Chinese passengers are “unjustified.”
The ECDC highlighted that China’s surge in cases are due to variants that are already present in the EU, and considers the EU’s vaccination rates and healthcare capacity sufficient to deal with any new imported cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
China has faced an upsurge in COVID-19 cases after its government responded to nationwide protests against its stringent zero-COVID-19 policy. While this policy had kept COVID-19 infections remarkably low in the country of 1.4 billion people, it had a major impact on Chinese industry and the daily life of its citizens.
European countries and the United States have long been critical of China’s tough approach against COVID-19, seeing the measures as an impediment to the global economy due to China’s role as a major manufacturer of products consumed around the world. The eventual lifting of the measures has however produced a divided response.
The US, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia have all introduced restrictions and additional testing for travelers from China, citing concerns over a potential new global COVID-19 wave driven potential new variants coming from China.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday called on China to release more data about its COVID-19 surge, to assist other countries in forming a coordinated response. On Friday, the WHO and top Chinese health officials held a high-level meeting where the WHO was briefed on China’s strategy and requested more detailed and transparent data exchange with Beijing.
