From January 5, anyone who wants to travel from China to the US must be able to present a negative Covid test before departure. On Wednesday, Italy was also the first country in Europe to make a corona test mandatory for travelers from China. Anyone who tests positive must be quarantined.
According to Italian Health Minister Orazio Schillaci (56), it is especially important to keep an eye on which variants of the coronavirus are infected with those traveling to China – in order to react quickly if a new, dangerous variant should appear .
An estimated 250 million people in China contracted the virus in the first three weeks of December alone. That’s almost every fifth person. The number of cases and deaths exploded after China surprisingly abandoned the zero-Covid strategy early this month, which the regime had previously strictly adhered to. Travel restrictions were largely lifted at the beginning of the week.
Bond is waiting
While the southern neighbor reacts, Switzerland is not planning any measures for the time being. This was announced by the federal government at the request of Radio SRF. It would be based on the EU not currently discussing such a mandatory test.
Geneva health director Mauro Poggia (63) is putting pressure on the federal government to act. One should not forget the situation in which Switzerland found itself in the spring of 2020. One should not put too much faith in the Chinese health authorities to inform them about the emergence of new variants, he told French-language Swiss television RTS.
Going alone makes no sense
However, Poggia is aware that going alone would make little sense for Switzerland. “Chinese tourists can travel throughout Europe with a Schengen visa, so decisions must be made at European level that also apply to Switzerland,” he says.
He announced that he would contact the Conference of Health Directors (GDK) about this. He would like to see the GDK, as a united voice of the cantons, lobbying the federal government for mandatory testing at EU level. (lha)