Covid

China Relaxes Some Testing Rules for US, Canada Arrivals

 

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.

 

ALSO SEE: Shanghai To Let More Businesses Restart Normal Operations

 

 

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

 

READ MORE:

Shanghai Uses Homes for Quarantine, Sparking Anger

Bali’s No-Quarantine Trial Begins A Week in Advance – Globe

Hong Kong Shortens On-Arrival Quarantine to Two Weeks

 

 

George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.

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