Kamis, 29 Desember 2022

India makes negative COVID-19 test mandatory for travellers from 5 countries from Jan 1 - CNA

NEW DELHI: India will make a negative COVID-19 test mandatory for flyers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from Jan 1, the health minister said on Thursday (Dec 29).

Travellers from these countries and territories would have to upload their test reports on an India government website before their departure, minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote on Twitter.

"This is being done in view of the evolving COVID-19 situation across the world," the health ministry said in a statement, adding that the test should be taken within 72 hours of travel to India.

The new requirement for a COVID-19 test would be in addition to the random tests on 2 per cent of all international passengers arriving in India.

The High Commission of India in Singapore on Wednesday had said that travellers from Singapore do not need to undergo mandatory COVID-19 tests when they visit the country.

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2022-12-29 10:09:00Z
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COVID-19 rules for travellers from China rolled out around the world - CNA

BEIJING: Several places around the world have imposed curbs on travellers from China amid a COVID-19 surge after Beijing relaxed strict "zero-COVID" measures. They cite a lack of information from China on variants and are concerned about a wave of infections.

China has rejected criticism of its statistics and said it expects future mutations to be potentially more virulent but less severe.

Below is a list of rules for travellers from China:

United States

The US will impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China beginning on Jan 5. All air passengers 2 and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macao. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said Americans should also reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.

India

The country has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travellers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, the health minister said. Passengers from those countries will be put under quarantine if they showed symptoms of COVID-19 or tested positive.

Japan

Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travellers from mainland China. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days. New border measures for China will go into effect at midnight on Dec 30.

The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China. Hong Kong's government has asked Japan to withdraw a restriction that requires passenger flights from the financial hub to land at four designated Japanese airports, saying the decision will affect about 60,000 passengers.

Italy

The country has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China. Milan's main airport, Malpensa, had already started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai.

"The measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population", minister Orazio Schillaci said, when announcing mandatory testing for passengers.

Taiwan

Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre said all passengers arriving on direct flights from China, as well as by boat at two offshore islands, will have to take PCR tests upon arrival.

Taiwan will test arrivals from China for COVID-19 starting Jan 1.

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2022-12-29 08:00:00Z
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China's vast countryside in rush to bolster COVID-19 defences - CNA

Hospitals and funeral homes in major cities have been under intense pressure, but the main concern over the health system's ability to cope with surging infections is focused on the countryside.

At a Shanghai pharmacy, Wang Kaiyun, 53, a cleaner in the city who comes from the neighbouring Anhui province, said she was buying medicines for her family back home.

"My husband, my son, my grandson, my mother, they are all infected," she said. "They can't get any medicine, nothing for fever or cough."

Each year, hundreds of millions of people, mostly working in factories near the southern and eastern coasts, return to the countryside for Chinese New Year, due to start on Jan 22.

The holiday travel rush is expected to last for 40 days, from Jan 7 to Feb 15, authorities said.

The state-run China Daily reported on Thursday that rural regions across China were beefing up their medical treatment capacities.

It said a hospital in a rural part of Inner Mongolia where more than 100,000 people live was seeking bidders for a 1.9 million yuan (US$272,308) contract to upgrade its wards into intensive care units.

Liancheng County Central Hospital in the eastern Fujian province was seeking tenders for ambulances and medical devices, ranging from breathing machines to electrocardiogram monitors.

In December, tenders put out by hospitals for key medical equipment were two-to-three times higher than in previous months, according to a Reuters review, suggesting hospitals across the country were scrambling to plug shortages.

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2022-12-29 07:42:00Z
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Asia's tourist hotspots prepare for boom as China relaxes COVID-19 rules - CNA

BANGKOK/SINGAPORE/SYDNEY: Asian countries are bracing for an influx of Chinese tourists as COVID-19 restrictions are dismantled, and while some are wary, operators in others are preparing packages such as hotpot buffets to cash in on the expected spike in travel.

Chinese tourists will no longer need to quarantine on return home starting Jan 8, the government announced this week, a move that spurred a surge in bookings from what was the world's largest outbound travel market in 2019.

The once US$255 billion a year in global spending by Chinese tourists ground to a virtual halt during the pandemic, leaving a gaping hole in the Asian market, where countries from Thailand to Japan had depended on China as the largest source of foreign visitors.

International flights to and from China are at just 8 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, VariFlight data shows, but carriers are looking to ramp up capacity as authorities ease COVID-driven limits on the number of flights.

"There is little doubt mainland Chinese are the spark plug for Thailand's tourism recovery," said Bill Barnett, managing director of hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks. "It's not a question of if it will happen, it's now just a matter of how many and how fast."

Malaysia Airlines and Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Aviation said they hope to restore China flights to pre-pandemic levels by June 2023, while others such as Singapore Airlines and Australia's Qantas Airways declined to provide detailed targets as the situation evolves.

Chinese airlines are likely to make significant increases to capacity from the end of March, coinciding with the start of the summer scheduling season, Morningstar analyst Cheng Weng told clients in a note.

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2022-12-29 06:42:00Z
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Soaring China COVID-19 cases increase risk of new variants: Experts - CNA

VARIANT "SOUP"

Xu Wenbo, head of the virus control institute at China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week that hospitals across the country would collect samples from patients and upload the sequencing information to a new national database, allowing authorities to monitor possible new strains in real-time.

More than 130 Omicron sublineages have been newly detected in China over the last three months, he told journalists.

Among those were XXB and BQ.1 and their sublineages, which have been spreading in the US and parts of Europe in recent months as a swarm of subvariants has competed for dominance worldwide.

However BA.5.2 and BF.7 remain the main Omicron strains detected in China, Xu said, adding that the varying sublineages would likely circulate together.

Flahault said "a soup" of more than 500 new Omicron subvariants had been identified in recent months, although it had often been difficult to tell where each had first emerged.

"Any variants, when more transmissible than the previous dominant ones - such as BQ.1, B2.75.2, XBB, CH.1, or BF.7 - definitely represent threats, since they can cause new waves," he said.

"However, none of these known variants seems to exhibit any particular new risks of more severe symptoms to our knowledge, although that might happen with new variants in the coming future."

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2022-12-29 03:58:41Z
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Rabu, 28 Desember 2022

No change in Singapore's Covid-19 measures for travellers from China - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Singapore will keep its prevailing Covid-19 rules in place for incoming travellers from China, which plans to reopen its borders from Jan 8, 2023.

Travellers who are not fully vaccinated, based on the World Health Organisation’s definition, will need to undergo pre-departure tests before they can enter the Republic, said Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday in response to media queries.

Short-term visitors are also required to purchase insurance for Covid-19-related medical expenses.

The prevailing border measures and vaccination requirements for travellers and work pass holders arriving from China remain unchanged.

MOH said it is closely monitoring the international Covid-19 situation and will adjust its border health measures, should the need arise.

This comes as other countries are implementing or considering measures to test or restrict travellers from China, as the country abandons its zero-Covid policy and reopens borders.

For instance, the United States is considering new coronavirus precautions for people travelling from China. Japan, too, moved quickly, requiring negative Covid-19 test results upon arrival for visitors who have been in mainland China within a seven-day period, while those who test positive will have to quarantine for a week.

The Philippines and Italy joined the call for Covid-19 measures, including testing for inbound travellers from China. Taiwan may also adjust its measures, such as testing, as it anticipates tens of thousands of people returning from the Chinese mainland for Chinese New Year in January. While Taiwan currently does not allow mainland Chinese tourists to enter, many Taiwanese work and invest in the mainland.

These concerns come amid uncertainty over the true scale of China’s Covid-19 infections, as the lack of reliable official figures is fuelling concern that the rapid spread of the virus could lead to the emergence of new variants.

China is experiencing the world’s largest Covid-19 outbreak, raising concerns among public health officials worldwide. Almost 37 million people may have been infected with the virus on a single day last week, according to estimates from the government’s top health authority.

Holiday bookings for outbound flights from mainland China jumped 254 per cent on Tuesday morning from the day before, according to Trip.com Group data, underscoring how the country’s vast population is ready and hungry for travel.

The top five destinations that saw a spike in interest from China were Singapore, with a 600 per cent increase in bookings, followed by about 400 per cent for South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand.

China currently imposes restrictions on outbound travel, as one needs valid reasons, such as education and business, to leave the country. 

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2022-12-28 15:40:33Z
1709216377

No change in Singapore's Covid-19 measures for travellers from China - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Singapore is maintaining its prevailing Covid-19 rules for incoming travellers from China as the country prepares to reopen its borders from Jan 8, 2023.

Travellers who are not fully vaccinated, based on the World Health Organisation’s definition, will need to undergo pre-departure tests, said Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday in response to media queries.

Short-term visitors are also required to purchase insurance for Covid-19-related medical expenses.

At this juncture, the prevailing border measures and vaccination requirements for travellers and work pass holders arriving from China remain unchanged, MOH added.

MOH said it is closely monitoring the international Covid-19 situation and will adjust its border health measures as appropriate should the need arise.

China currently imposes restrictions on outbound travel, as one needs valid reasons, such as education and business, to leave the country.

In a snap move late on Monday, China said that from Jan 8, 2023, inbound travellers would no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival, in a further unwinding of stringent Covid-19 controls that had torpedoed its economy and sparked nationwide protests.

China will also resume issuing visas for mainland residents to travel overseas from Jan 8, 2023, loosening the country’s zero-Covid regime and ending almost three years of strict quarantine rules.

Unlike most of the world where people have transitioned to living with the pandemic, China had until recently maintained harsh restrictions and largely sealed itself off.

These strict measures heavily disrupted international tourism and business travel, further hampering the country’s battered economy.

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2022-12-28 10:43:41Z
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