Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ WASHINGTON: The United States is considering Covid-19 entry restrictions for travellers from China, US officials said.
After Beijing, they dramatically loosened hardline containment measures that month.
Infections have surged across China as a key pillar of its containment policies has been dismantled, prompting US officials to express concern at the potential for a new variant to be unleashed.
That potential became even more real Monday when Beijing said it could scrap mandatory Covid quarantine for overseas arrivals from January 8, prompting many in China to rush the plan trips abroad.
US Stance on Covid-19
According to the Agence France-Presse is an international news agency, US officials said that referring to the People’s Republic of China. There have mounting concerns in the global community on the ongoing Covid-19 surges in China and a lack of transparent information, including viral genomic sequence data.
Beijing officials have acknowledged that the outbreak is “impossible” to track and have done away with much-maligned case tallies, in addition to narrowing the criteria by which Covid fatalities have been counted.
The US officials said it has the lack of genomic data that has sparked particular concern abroad, making it “increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they could be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread.
The United States has followed the science and advice of public health experts, consulting with partners, and considering taking similar steps to countries such as Japan and Malaysia, which have announced citizen’s health measures to counter the spread of Covid-19 from China.
China’s loosening of the measures effectively brings the curtain down on a zero-Covid regime, the mass testing, lockdowns and long quarantines that have roiled a supply chain and buffeted business engagement with the global second-largest economy.
The foreign ministry of Beijing said on Tuesday that countries uphold “scientific and appropriate” disease controls that “should not affect normal personnel exchanges.
