Australia says no change to Covid-19 entry rules for travellers from China

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government will continue to monitor the impact of Covid in Australia as well as around the world
His comments came as the US joined India, Italy and Japan in taking new travel measures after Beijing’s decision to ditch its zero Covid policies

Australia

Reuters

Published: 10:02am, 29 Dec 2022

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Australia is making no change to its rules around allowing travellers from China into the country, despite measures by some governments to require mandatory Covid-19 tests, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.

“We will take the appropriate advice from the health experts,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“There is no change in the travel advice at this point in time but we are continuing to monitor the situation, as we continue to monitor the impact of Covid here in Australia as well as around the world.”

Meanwhile, Indonesia on Thursday said it has no plans to tighten restrictions for visitors from China. Under current rules, passengers arriving from overseas are only required to show proof of complete vaccination against the coronavirus. It scrapped the PCR test requirement for fully-vaccinated travellers in May unless they have a fever.

The Philippines’ Department of Health doesn’t see a need yet to close borders or impose tighter Covid restrictions on inbound Chinese travellers, the agency’s officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

The agency is confident that existing health protocols are sufficient, Vergeire said at a briefing on Thursday. “We can’t just have closures, then open it, then close it again. We are moving forward,” she said.

Since China relaxed strict measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the country has experienced a surge of cases, overwhelming hospitals and prompting countries including the United States, Italy, India and Japan to impose restrictions on travellers from the mainland.

The Telegraph reported on Thursday that Britain will consider imposing curbs including requiring Covid tests for arrivals from China.

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Australia and China recently resumed diplomatic dialogue after relations between the countries hit a low point following criticism by Canberra of Beijing’s handling of Covid-19. In 2020, China imposed trade sanctions on several major Australian exports.

This month, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong became the country’s first government minister to visit China since 2019.

On Thursday, Trade Minister Don Farrell said he was willing to visit China to talk through Beijing’s bans on imports of Australian barley and wine, which are currently the subject of an Australian complaint to the World Trade Organization.

“When you have trade disputes that can’t be resolved by discussion that’s your only alternative,” Farrell told the ABC.

“We would prefer to sit down and discuss the issues.”

Albanese, asked on the Seven Network if he planned to visit China, said he had a “very positive” meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, but “we’ll wait and see in regards to a visit by myself”.

“There are none planned at the moment,” he added.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg