Australia Government will not impose COVID test rules on returning arrivals from China

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that the nation will not immediately follow countries such as Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the USA by introducing measures to require travellers from China to produce a negative Covid test - or be tested on arrival - to pass through its borders.

In the wake of the Chinese Government’s announcement that its international borders will reopen from 8th January, Prime Minister Albanese yesterday backed health advice that said Australia has built up immunity to the variant ravaging China - although he did not rule out travel restrictions in future.

Against a backdrop of COVID-19 continuing to spread through parts of China, on Wednesday, the US Government said a lack of "adequate and transparent" data had contributed to its decision to require tests from 5th January for travellers entering the country from China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Italy became the first country in Europe to require people arriving from China to be tested. Authorities had already been monitoring swab tests at airports in Rome and Milan, where on Monday one in two passengers arriving from China who undertook non-mandatory tests were found to be positive for coronavirus.

Since then, the US Government announced that from 5th January it will also require all travellers from China to provide a negative Covid test to before boarding a flight. Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan have also announced test requirements for entry.

However, Australian authorities have held off introducing similar rules.

On Thursday, Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, said for now he was comfortable not introducing negative test requirements for arrivals from China because the main variant authorities believed was circulating in that country had already spread throughout Australia in July.

Kelly told ABC radio “the biggest issue in China that we need to watch is the emergence of other variants, and at this stage that hasn’t happened.

“The information we have out of China, at least at the moment, is the variant that’s circulating mostly and driving the rising cases in China is a variant that we’ve already seen in Australia… and it’s mostly started to become less of a problem here.

“It’s a dynamic situation. We certainly need to watch closely what’s happening in China and that’s what we’re doing.”

He said China has a “very under-immune” population because of the zero-case policy pursued since the beginning of the pandemic, adding “this was always eventually going to happen that when they did move to a similar response to the rest of the world that they would be faced with a very largely non-immune population.”

Kelly added that the “soup of variants” that spread in Australia throughout 2022 had contributed to a “high hybrid immunity”, and said that high vaccination rates and the availability of antiviral treatments and testing capability meant “we’re actually very well protected from the severe issues of Covid”.

Prime Minister Albanese backed Kelly’s advice but left the door open to future border restrictions, telling Channel Nine “we are always open to following the health advice which is what we do with travel to various countries.”

Prime Minister Albanese (pictured) later told the ABC “what we will do is take health advice, not just when it comes to China, when it comes to every country.

“What is occurring in some parts of the world as well is that people have to get tested before they get on a plane as well. So, there are various methods.

“We will examine the advice which is there. But we will always do what we can to keep Australians safe. We know that Covid is still impacting right around the world and of course here in Australia as well.”