Most EU countries back Covid pre-departure testing for flights from China

Most European Union countries favour introducing pre-departure Covid testing for travellers from China, the European Commission said on Tuesday, as Beijing plans to lift travel restrictions on its citizens despite a wave of Covid infections.

The common EU approach emerged after a meeting on Tuesday of the Health Security Committee, an EU advisory body of national health experts from the 27 countries in the EU, which is chaired by the EU.

"The overwhelming majority of countries are in favour of pre-departure testing," a European Commission spokesperson said.

"These measures would need to be targeted at the most appropriate flights and airports and carried out in a coordinated way to ensure their effectiveness," he said.

The EU on Tuesday prepared a draft proposal for the talks, which included a recommendation for the wearing of masks on flights from China, wastewater monitoring for aircraft arriving from China, genomic surveillance at airports and increased monitoring and sequencing and increased EU vigilance on testing and vaccination.

"This will now be revised and adopted based on the input of (EU) Member States," the EU spokesman said, adding more talks on the measures would take place at another meeting of EU health officials on Wednesday afternoon.

The spokesman said all EU countries agreed they needed a coordinated approach to the changing situation in China and to deal with the implications of increased travel from China to Europe after China lifts its stringent pandemic policies on Jan 8.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said last week it did not currently recommend measures for travellers from China.

It said the variants circulating in China were already in the European Union, that EU citizens had relatively high vaccination levels and the potential for imported infections was low compared to daily infections in the EU, with healthcare systems currently coping.

- Reuters