China has relaxed some mandatory Covid-19 testing for people flying in from certain countries, including the US, Canada and Bangladesh.
Authorities have also shortened the pre-departure requirements for some inbound travellers.
The slight easing of curbs was announced in notices from Chinese embassies and consulates that did not provide further details.
From Friday, travellers from Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago will no longer need an RT-PCR test seven days before flying, or any antibody test.
Those travellers will still need to do two RT-PCR tests within 48 or 24 hours of their flights – depending on which airport they are flying out of – plus another pre-flight antigen test, those notices showed.
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Measures Eased for People in Other Countries
The removal of the RT-PCR test seven days before flights and the elimination of antibody tests will also apply to travellers to China from Canada starting Sunday.
Those who had already recovered from infections will no longer need to provide chest scan images, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said on Thursday.
Chinese embassies in Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Bangladesh said on Wednesday they had removed some testing requirements and shortened the pre-departure quarantine period for employees at Chinese companies to 10 days from 21 days.
For arrivals from Bangladesh, there is a further reduction of the pre-flight quarantine for other travellers to five days from seven days, while Serbia has halved the pre-departure quarantine time for certain personnel to one week.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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