Chinese travellers touching down in Australia from Saturday will no longer have to provide a negative COVID-19 test before entering the country.
The news comes after Labor followed several other nations in January, including the United Kingdom, in announcing that all travellers from China would be required to test negative for coronavirus in the 48 hours prior to their arrival.sparked major backlash from the opposition who argued it wasn't needed amid a wave of COVID-19 infections in China at the time.
The government said it had been monitoring the situation in China and reviewing epidemiological data over time, which highlighted COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths had peaked in late December and early January. Across the globe, the US and Korea are set to drop mandatory testing imposed on China from Friday, while Japan, France and Italy ended the requirement last month.
"The last thing our country needs is a panicked response from a government that doesn’t have a plan and, frankly, over the last week, has been making it up as they go along," Mr Dutton and Ms Ruston said in a joint statement on January 3.
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