US announces new Covid testing requirements for travelers from China
The Biden administration says those coming from China, Hong Kong and Macau must show negative coronavirus tests before entering states United States.
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau must present negative Covid-19 tests before traveling enter the United States, a move she says is aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The requirement will take effect on January 5.
The announcement, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came amid growing concern over a rising cases in China and the country's lack of transparency about the outbreak there.
C.D.C. officials said the testing requirement will apply to air passengers regardless of their nationality and vaccination status. It will also apply to travelers from China entering the United States through a third country, and those connecting through the United States to other destinations.
The Covid outbreak in China has worsened in recent days, with local governments reporting hundreds of thousands of infections daily. Videos obtained by The New York Times show sick patients crowded into hospital hallways. But the situation is difficult to monitor in real time because China does not publish reliable Covid data.
After three years of insisting on a "zero Covid" policy, the China made an abrupt reversal in early December and lifted the policy, after mass protests against lockdowns that threatened the ruling Communist Party. Since then, there has been an explosion of cases in Beijing.
Scientists in Hong Kong have reported that a subvariant of Omicron known as BF.7 was responsible for the outbreak in Beijing. . This variant is a subline of BA.5, which until recently was dominant in the United States. But BF.7, despite being in the US for months, hasn't shown any signs of superiority over other Omicron versions here.
The C.D.C. estimated that BF.7 accounted for 4% of cases at the end of December and had become less common since November. Other subvariants of Omicron that scientists believe may be more adept at evading existing immune responses are currently dominant in the United States.
Scientists have said in recent days that, for now at least, the variant fueling the outbreak in China may not necessarily be the one that most effectively evades immune responses. Since so few people in China have ever been infected with versions of Omicron, any of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants that have been circling the world lately could take off there.
>In a population like China's with so little existing immunity to infection, the dominant variant may not necessarily be the best one to circumvent these immune responses, but simply the one that ignites, they said.
"In some sense, what took off first will probably be dominant there" , said James Trauer, an infectious disease modeling expert at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Biden administration says those coming from China, Hong Kong and Macau must show negative coronavirus tests before entering states United States.
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau must present negative Covid-19 tests before traveling enter the United States, a move she says is aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The requirement will take effect on January 5.
The announcement, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came amid growing concern over a rising cases in China and the country's lack of transparency about the outbreak there.
C.D.C. officials said the testing requirement will apply to air passengers regardless of their nationality and vaccination status. It will also apply to travelers from China entering the United States through a third country, and those connecting through the United States to other destinations.
The Covid outbreak in China has worsened in recent days, with local governments reporting hundreds of thousands of infections daily. Videos obtained by The New York Times show sick patients crowded into hospital hallways. But the situation is difficult to monitor in real time because China does not publish reliable Covid data.
After three years of insisting on a "zero Covid" policy, the China made an abrupt reversal in early December and lifted the policy, after mass protests against lockdowns that threatened the ruling Communist Party. Since then, there has been an explosion of cases in Beijing.
Scientists in Hong Kong have reported that a subvariant of Omicron known as BF.7 was responsible for the outbreak in Beijing. . This variant is a subline of BA.5, which until recently was dominant in the United States. But BF.7, despite being in the US for months, hasn't shown any signs of superiority over other Omicron versions here.
The C.D.C. estimated that BF.7 accounted for 4% of cases at the end of December and had become less common since November. Other subvariants of Omicron that scientists believe may be more adept at evading existing immune responses are currently dominant in the United States.
Scientists have said in recent days that, for now at least, the variant fueling the outbreak in China may not necessarily be the one that most effectively evades immune responses. Since so few people in China have ever been infected with versions of Omicron, any of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants that have been circling the world lately could take off there.
>In a population like China's with so little existing immunity to infection, the dominant variant may not necessarily be the best one to circumvent these immune responses, but simply the one that ignites, they said.
"In some sense, what took off first will probably be dominant there" , said James Trauer, an infectious disease modeling expert at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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