To test or not to COVID test people arriving from China? That's the question UK government officials are mulling as the east Asian country opens up to international travel
Former health minister Lord Bethell has urged the government to follow Italy in introducing COVID tests for visitors from China.
"But what the Italians are doing is post-flight surveillance of arrivals in Italy in order to understand whether there are any emerging variants and... the impact of the virus on the Italian health system," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. China said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.
China's borders have been all but shut to foreigners since early 2020, soon after the coronavirus first emerged in its central city of Wuhan, but it has announced it will do away with quarantine for inbound travellers from 8 January. This was up from 1.1 million in late November but below the two million weekly infections in early October.
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