China has imposed fresh travel bans onnon-Chinese arrivals from Britain and Belgium, as it guards against aresurgence of the coronavirus by refusing entry to people from two ofEurope’s worst-hit nations, reports AFP.
Covid-19 first emerged in central China late last year, but Beijing haslargely brought its own outbreak under control through tight travelrestrictions and stringent health measures for anyone entering the country.
In March, as the virus ripped across the world, China shut its borders toall foreign nationals.
It gradually eased those restrictions to allow those stranded overseas toreturn with special permission from its embassies, negative Covid-19 tests and a two-week quarantine on arrival. But in a sharp reversal as the outbreak once more billows out acrossEurope, the Chinese embassy in the UK said Beijing had “decided totemporarily suspend entry into China by non-Chinese nationals”. “The suspension is a temporary response necessitated by the currentsituation of Covid-19,” it said Wednesday. The Chinese embassy website in Belgium announced a similar ban ontravellers as a “last resort in response to the current pandemic”.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately reply to an AFP requestfor comment.
The UK, one of the world’s hardest hit countries with nearly 48,000 deathslinked to the virus and more than one million cases, has entered a new nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Belgium, which has the most Covid-19 cases per capita in the world, hasbeen in lockdown since last week.
The websites of Chinese embassies in other European countries were notcarrying similar notices on Thursday morning, and citizens of these countries with visas are able to travel to China, subject to conditions.
Beijing has recently tightened requirements for travellers from severalcountries, making entry much more difficult.
These requirements include the presentation of a health certificate fromthe local Chinese embassy showing the results of a nucleic acid test and anantibody test — within 48 hours of travel.
The new rules apply to travellers from countries including France, India,Singapore, Canada, Germany, Pakistan, South Africa and the US.
The strict two-test entry requirement and short time frame have sparkedcomplaints.
The European Chamber of Commerce in China said the measures were “a defacto ban on anyone trying to get back to their lives, work and families in China”.
