Australia joins quite a lot of different nations, together with the US, France and the UK, who launched new harsh China arrivals restrictions
Australia’s authorities officers in Canberra introduced that ranging from this Thursday, January 5, all arrivals originating in China should current proof of destructive take a look at outcomes for COVID-19 obtained not more than 48 hours previous to the journey to Australia.
By imposing a 48-hour testing rule, Australia joined quite a lot of different nations, together with the USA, France and the UK, who launched comparable restrictions.
Beijing authorities condemned the testing necessities as “unfounded and discriminatory” whereas accusing Western nations of making an attempt to “sabotage China’s three years of COVID-19 control efforts and attack the country’s system.”
Professor Paul Kelly, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, suggested towards obligatory COVID-19 testing for guests from China, stating “believe that there is sufficient public health rationale to impose any restriction or additional requirements on travelers from China.”
The nation’s opposition chief Peter Dutton has accused the federal government of ignoring Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation, demanding the reason from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese why he was not following this suggestion.
“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,” stated Dutton in an announcement, including that new restrictions “disrupt families and businesses.”
“Australians expect that their government is prepared for situations like this; instead, we are left with chaos and confusion,” added Dutton.
According to western media stories, virtually 250 million individuals in China might have contracted COVID-19 within the first 20 days of December.
However, China’s National Health Commission formally reported solely 62,592 symptomatic COVID-19 instances for that interval, whereas the nation’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbi described the “epidemic situation” as “predictable and under control.”