Aeschi calls for corona tests for travelers from China

“We should not make the same mistake as three years ago,” says SVP party leader Thomas Aeschi (43). It is therefore now necessary for travelers from China to have themselves tested for corona upon arrival in order to protect the Swiss population against possible mutations. Aeschi Blick thus confirms a message from Radio 1.

The chairman of the Commissions for Social Security and Health in the National Council wants to submit the relevant application to the directorate of Minister of Health Alain Berset (50) next week.

The Genevan health director Mauro Poggia (63) had already spoken out in favor of mandatory screening for people entering from China. This against the background that Air China will resume flights between Beijing and Geneva from January 26, 2023.

Swiss well protected

For once, SVPer Aeschi wants to see the rules of some EU countries in Switzerland as soon as possible. Starting this week, Italy, France and Spain will require travelers from China to show a negative PCR test no older than two days upon arrival. In some cases, they must be retested immediately upon arrival.

Countries such as Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, on the other hand, see no reason to impose stricter entry rules. “Currently, it cannot be assumed that the current infection process in China will pose an increased risk to the Swiss health system, as omicron variants have also been circulating here for some time,” said a spokesperson for the Swiss Health Directors’ Conference. Therefore, no entry rules for travelers from China are currently planned.

In addition, mainly Omicron sub-variants were circulating in China, including the new variant BF.7. “There is no evidence that this variant leads to a more severe course of the disease than the previous omicron variants,” said the conference of health directors. The vast majority of people in Switzerland have been vaccinated, have had an infection or both and therefore have a high degree of protection against a severe course of Covid 19 disease.

Lauterbach sees no urgency

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (59) also said that stricter rules were “not yet necessary”. According to him, Germany is preparing a system for “variant monitoring” at airports together with other European countries. For the time being, Belgium also wants to limit itself to examining wastewater from airplane toilets for possible virus variants.

After nearly three years of mass testing, closed borders, travel bans and lockdowns, the Chinese state and party leadership surprisingly announced the end of the zero-Covid policy on December 7. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly among China’s 1.4 billion people.

It is estimated that hundreds of millions of people have already been infected with Corona and tens of thousands have died as a result of Covid disease. No reliable data is available on this because the authorities have stopped publishing epidemiological data.

EU consults on Wednesday

Given the corona wave in China, a large proportion of EU states support corona tests for travelers from the People’s Republic, according to the European Commission. “The vast majority of countries are in favor of pre-departure testing,” a spokesman for the Brussels authority said on Tuesday after a meeting of representatives of national health ministries. In principle, they want to agree on a “coordinated approach”. The discussion on uniform entry rules will continue on Wednesday in a meeting of EU countries at expert level.

The government in Beijing has already spoken out against strict entry rules from other countries for travelers from the People’s Republic. These rules are “discriminatory”, according to a spokeswoman.