Canada nodes yes for covid 19 testing for flights from China

Travelers coming into Canada from China, Hong Kong, and Macau will now have to undergo covid 19 testing as the federal government requires.

The new restrictions begin Jan 5 when air travelers coming to Canada from flights originating from the people’s republic of China, Hongkong, and Macau that are two years of age or older will now be required to present before the authorities a negative covid 19 test before boarding the plane to Canada.

The test should be taken only within 2 days prior to the departure.

The government in a release said that they intend to put in place certain temporary health measures for air travelers entering Canada from China as in response to the surge in covid 19 cases in the people’s republic of china. There is limited epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data available on these cases.

Passengers who have had a covid 10 days prior to the departure and within the previous 90 days can provide their airline with the documentation of them being prior positive in place of a negative test.

These temporary measures are planned for next 30 days and will be reassessed according to the situation. The health minister of Canada has said that the government’s action is guided by prudence and they will not hesitate to adjust measures to protect the health and safety of Canadians.

If arriving at Canadian airport’s primary inspection kiosks and e-gates, passengers will be probed whether they have traveled to China, Hongkong or Macau in the last 10 days.

Officers of Canada’s border service agency will provide travelers with additional public health information and what to do if they develop the symptoms of the virus. However, this only applies to air travelers, not those who are arriving by land.

Canada’s public health agency has also put in place a pilot project in place on wastewater testing with Vancouver international airport. An existing project with Toronto Pearson international airport is also expanding. These projects are undertaken in order to assess covid-19 prevalence from various regions across the world. In order to monitor the novel variants of concern, the samples are sequenced.

The top priorities are the safety of travelers and the transportation industry. The government is taking unprecedented action to protect the health and safety of Canadians by introducing measures to further prevent the introduction and transmission of covid 19 in Canada, the transport minister Omar Alghabra said.

The measures follow the example of similar implemented rules from other countries, including the US and Japan, as china struggle with a surge of the virus.

China had put in place a zero covid strategy that kept the country in isolation for nearly three years which it has recently reversed and announced this week the plans to issue passports and visas for overseas trips.

As the Chinese Lunar new year is near and a lot of Chinese will use the holidays to fly overseas thereby the possibility of virus spread is always there and concern and risk of mutations to the virus amid rapid spread is also there.

Chinese foreign ministry has said that China is continuing to monitor the virus mutations and is sharing the information and stressing the importance of science-based research.

Covid rules for flights from China have been tightened in some European countries as authorities in France, Spain, and England said tougher measures for passengers arriving from China will be implemented.

France’s government now requires negative covid 19 tests from travelers coming from china and urges french nationals to avoid nonessential travel to the country. France has also reintroduced mask requirements on flights from China to France

In order to identify potential new coronavirus variants French health officials will carry out random PCR tests at airports on passengers arriving from China. The rules have taken effect from Sunday but it will take few days before they are fully in place.

The UK government also announced that anyone traveling to England on flights from China would be required to take the pre-departure test from Jan 5. The Health secretary of the UK has said that they were taking a balanced and precautionary approach. He has described the measures as temporary while officials assess covid 19 statistics.

Spain government will also require all passengers coming from China to have negative tests or proof of vaccination.

Health minister Carolina Darias also seemed skeptical and told reporters that Spain would be pushing for similar measures at a European level following the surge of cases in China. She also added that Coronavirus health controls would be stepped up at Spanish airports. Although she didn’t specify when the new requirement would take effect.

In a report, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also commented that the body needs more information on the severity of the outbreak in China.

“The countries are doing their needful often taking lessons from two years back to protect their population and steps like these should be welcome but in the absence of comprehensive information from china, nothing specific can be said. The remaining countries are left in a lurch often helpless about whether to tighten restrictions or to go easy” he said on a thread on twitter.

WHO believes that more detailed information is required from the ground in China in order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the covid 19 situation.

The figures for current hospitalizations in Canada stood at 4,775 of which 267 are ICU admissions.