Travellers arriving in the UK from China who test positive for Covid will not be forced to quarantine, a cabinet minister has said.
The move to test passengers coming into the country on flights from China is about “collecting information” due to Beijing refusing to share its coronavirus data, said Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
Heathrow is currently the only UK airport with direct flights from China that is offering voluntary tests for arrivals, The Independent reported.
Mr Harper, asked if those who test positive after arriving in the UK will be required to quarantine, told LBC: “No, because what we are doing is we are collecting that information for surveillance purposes.”
He said there are “very high levels of vaccination” in the UK and encouraged older, more vulnerable people to “get their fourth booster shot this winter”.
The cabinet minister, who campaigned against stringent restrictions from the backbenches during the pandemic, added: “The policy for arrivals from China is primarily about collecting information that the Chinese government is not sharing with the international community.”
Under measures announced by Health Secretary Steve Barclay, passengers flying from China into England from Thursday will be required to take a Covid test before boarding a plane.
China Covid latest — in pictures
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People stand outside a funeral home in Shanghai, as cases of Covid-19 surge in China. Reuters -
Relatives burn paper offerings for a relative who died, at the Gaobeidian Funeral Home in northern China's Hebei province. AP -
A worker disinfects a bed in the emergency department of a hospital in Baigou, Hebei province. AP -
Cities across the country have struggled to cope as the surge in cases has emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes. AP -
It comes after China dismantled key pillars of its zero-Covid strategy. AP -
Authorities have lifted snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a reversal of the country's hallmark containment strategy. Reuters -
Relatives attend to a patient. AP -
People wait outside a fever clinic at a hospital in Shanghai. Reuters
The government will also carry out surveillance testing of a sample of passengers to try to spot new variants of the virus that could pose a threat.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said the government would set out the full details regarding new rules for travellers entering the UK from China “in due course”.
But they rejected any suggestion that the new rules for Chinese travellers could signal a wider change for visitors travelling to the UK from countries with high rates of Covid-19.
“A part of the reason for this was because of a lack of comprehensive health information being shared,” he said.
“We’re working with the Chinese government to encourage them — we’re not alone in this — to get more information from them.”
There are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but ministers said they are working with the devolved administrations to enact the measures UK-wide.
The move comes as Beijing prepares to start reissuing passports and visas for overseas trips after lifting its zero-Covid controls — a decision that has lead to a massive surge in infections.
Italy starts testing for Covid-19 among travellers from China — in pictures
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A notice for travellers arriving from China to undergo mandatory Covid tests at Caselle airport, in Turin, Italy. EPA -
Italy on December 29, 2022, became the first European country to officially start testing for Covid-19 among people arriving from China. EPA -
The move came after China's announcement it was set to open its borders, as new variants of coronavirus surged in the Asian country. -
Travellers arriving from China are tested for Covid at Malpensa Airport, in Milan. EPA -
Italy has urged the rest of the EU to follow its lead and test travellers from China, but most of the bloc's members have said they see no need to do so. EPA -
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says it does not currently recommend measures on travellers from China. EPA -
Travellers arriving from China line up for Covid testing in Malpensa Airport, in Milan. EPA -
Travellers arriving from China line up for Covid testing in Malpensa Airport, in Milan. EPA -
Health workers at Malpensa Airport, in Milan. EPA
Mr Harper called Mr Sunak’s approach a “sensible, balanced proposition” to deal with the potential spread of Covid from China.
“This is about a country, China, which isn’t sharing the health data with the global health system that we expect everybody to do,” he told LBC.
“That is why we have put this temporary precautionary measure in place as China opens up its borders.
“We are doing two things: we are requiring people who fly from China to have a pre-departure test so they have got to show that they are negative before they get on that flight, and when they get to the United Kingdom, the UK Health Security Agency will take a sample of passengers and test them.”
This will be done so that the UK has the information in its health system to better allow it to track the virus as it comes into the country, Mr Harper added.
“That, I think, is a very sensible, balanced proposition which I think helps keep people in the UK safe but doesn’t put any restrictions on how people in the UK are able to operate.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said passengers “will not be allowed to board a flight” to the UK from China if they do not have “evidence of a negative test result”.
But, in a separate statement, a department spokeswoman confirmed that tests upon arrival in England were “optional”.
“We encourage people at the border to take a test to help themselves, their families and wider knowledge on Covid,” she said.
“However, the testing is optional and people can decline if they wish to do so.”
Covid patients fill ICUs in China's hospitals — video
Beijing has condemned the introduction of Covid-19 testing for passengers arriving in countries such as the UK from China.
Chinese officials said that “entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis” and that the country could impose countermeasures.
Some experts cautioned that the wider issue of testing arrivals was not straightforward.
Thomas House, an expert in mathematical statistics at the University of Manchester, suggested that “any contribution of the Chinese epidemic to what we see in the UK is likely to be minimal”.
He said that the on the “complex” issue of surveillance testing, “it is worth noting that the capacity for such surveillance is always limited”.
Testing travellers, he said, needs to be balanced against “potential enhanced surveillance in our health and social care sectors”.
Rowland Kao, from the University of Edinburgh, said that the surveillance testing could fill an “important gap”.
“Testing on arrival is not to prevent spread but to gather data — we know very little about what is happening in China,” said Dr Kao, an expert on veterinary epidemiology and data science.
“If we and other countries are able to in particular gather viral sequences, this will give us knowledge of what variants might be emerging in China.”
