Australia’s Covid-19 test requirement for mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau visitors ‘racist’, sows ‘chaos’

The move comes despite the country’s top health official saying there’s no ‘sufficient public health rationale’ nor ‘specific threat’ of variants

Some Australians have questioned the logic of imposing restrictions on Chinese travellers while following a ‘let it rip’ Covid strategy at home

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Masked traveller walk through the international flight departure terminal entrance gate at the capital airport in Beijing. Australia has joined a raft of countries, including the US and Japan, that have implemented similar restrictions as infections soar in China after the government abruptly abandoned its stringent zero-Covid policy. Photo: AP

Published: 5:00pm, 3 Jan 2023Updated: 5:13pm, 3 Jan 2023

Australia’s decision to require visitors arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to test negative for Covid-19 has come under fire from the country’s top health official and Chinese-Australians, who described the move as “racist”.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly last Saturday advised health minister Mark Butler there was not a “sufficient public health rationale” for the measure, which the government rolled out on Sunday.

“I do not believe that there is a sufficient public health rationale for imposing restrictions on travellers from China or any other country with a high burden of Covid-19 cases at present,” Kelly wrote in a letter to Butler.

Shoppers wearing masks visit a popular mall following the easing of pandemic restrictions in Beijing. Photo: AP

Kelly also said as there was no “specific threat” from a Covid variant, and with high vaccination rates in Australia, any curbs on China were unnecessary.

He proposed other alternatives, including testing waste water from airlines and voluntary sampling of passengers on arrival, national broadcaster ABC reported.

But minister Butler said the decision to impose the pre-departure testing requirement from Thursday for people travelling to Australia from mainland China and its two special administrative regions was made “out of an abundance of caution”.

People on flights transiting through mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau do not need to take a Covid test.