Airlines are demanding answers after Australia announced that travellers arriving from China would be required to provide a negative COVID test result before departure.
Airlines are demanding to know if passengers flying through Hong Kong or transiting through mainland China will need to take a COVID-19 test before they arrive in Australia.
“There needs to be urgent clarification on transiting passengers given Hong Kong has been included in the announcement,” he told this masthead“Many people could pass through Hong Kong on the way to Australia and our view is those requiring testing should be based on country of point of origin as long as the passenger doesn’t leave the airport.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision at the end of 2022 to suddenly relax his three-year pursuit of COVID zero has brought on a huge wave of cases with millions of infections a day, prompting the US to block travellers from China unless they provide proof of a negative test.
“There’s no evidence right now,” he said. “And the evidence does suggest that the main driver of this very large wave in China is a variant of Omicron.The minister pointed to theon its COVID-19 outbreak as justification for the move, but acknowledged that Australia’s chief medical officers had not advised of any imminent public health threat posed by the resumption of Chinese tourism.
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