A source with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday (March 7, 2023) that the U.S. intends to lift a Covid testing requirement for visitors from China that was put in place earlier this year.
The move would stop the China-specific regulations that went into effect at the beginning of January, as first reported by The Washington Post.
The U.S. began requiring pre-departure negative Covid tests for travelers ages 2 and up flying from China on Jan. 5. The policy followed a surge in coronavirus cases in China after it ended its strict “Covid-zero” policy in December.
The plan, which comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries after a suspected Chinese spy balloon crossed the U.S. this year, has been referred to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment. The debacle derailed a planned trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who would have been the first U.S. secretary of state to have visited China since Mike Pompeo in 2018.
Beijing eased Covid policies at the end of last year after weeks of nationwide protests over restrictions that had constrained much of daily life for nearly three years. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new Covid travel rule, which requires a negative test within two days of travel for travelers flying planes from China, Hong Kong, or Macao. Nevertheless, the relaxed regulations were swiftly followed by a fresh wave of illnesses.
Chinese officials on Jan. 14 reported nearly 60,000 Covid-related deaths since early December and asserted that the “emergency peak” of its surge had passed. However, the British-based health analytics firm Airfinity offered a starker forecast just two days later, projecting that China’s Covid-related death toll had yet to peak and that it would crest at 36,000 deaths a day on Jan. 26.
China has repeatedly been accused of undercounting Covid-related deaths.
After the Covid travel policy was implemented in January, U.S. officials have seen evidence that cases, hospitalizations and deaths in China are declining, sources familiar with the decision to lift the testing requirement said.
According to the sources, American officials will keep track of cases in China and maintain a program that was started in 2021 to use voluntary traveler participation to find new varieties. The Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance Program collects nasal swab samples from passengers arriving on aircraft from over 30 different nations.
The CDC already requires all air travelers who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to be fully vaccinated before they fly into the country.
