The UK’s response to China opening up overseas travel is “under review”, the defence secretary says.
Ben Wallace made the comments after a government spokesperson said there were no plans to introduce mandatory COVID-19 tests for arrivals to the UK from China, and a series of countries imposed controls.
The news follows China announcing that it was abandoning its COVID-zero policy and was preparing to reopen its borders in January.
There are fears that the end of almost three years of strict measures in the country of 1.4 billion people could result in a massive spread of the disease worldwide.
Health minister Will Quince admitted that people “will be concerned by the news coming out of China” but he added: “The key thing to look out for is a new variant, and there is no evidence of a new variant that is not already prevalent in the UK – but we are keeping the situation under review.”
He also said Health Secretary Steve Barclay has met the head of the UK Health Security Agency, Dame Jenny Harries, and the chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty to discuss the situation.
The European Union’s Health Security Committee has called for the bloc’s member states to coordinate and roll out joint measures against COVID-19 as China reopens its borders.
The committee – an informal advisory group on health security at European level – said following an emergency meeting on the COVID-19 situation in China that “coordination of national responses to serious cross border threats to health is crucial.”
The US announced on Wednesday that, from 5 January, all arrivals from China will have to provide a negative COVID test result taken no more than two days before their flight.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the move was due to the surge in infections and a lack of adequate and transparent information from China, particularly on the strains circulating in the country.
That came after India, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and…
