Australian Government to require mandatory COVID-19 tests for travellers from China

Becoming the latest country to impose testing requirements on travellers from China, the Australian Government has announced that arrivals from China will be required to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test and show evidence of a negative result as of 5th January.

With the Chinese Government allowing its nationals to travel from this Thursday despite a rise in Coronavirus cases, Australia joins Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the UK and the USA in imposing testing requirements.

With Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing that it would not immediately follow other countries in introducing COVID checks, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler today announced that travellers from China would need to have a negative COVID test result within the 48 hours before travel.

Minister Butler cited the “lack of comprehensive information” being providing to the international community by the Chinese Government  was providing to the international community about the outbreak gripping the nation of 1.4 billion people for the testing mandate.

Minister Butler advised “the decision to implement these temporary measures has been made out of an abundance of caution, taking into account the dynamic and evolving situation in China and the potential for new variants to emerge in an environment of high transmission.”

The mandatory testing will apply to travellers from Hong Kong and Macau in addition to those from mainland China.

With the World Health Organization having called on Chinese authorities to regularly share specific and real-time data on its epidemiological situation, Minister Butler advised “that lack of comprehensive information has led a number of countries in recent days to put in place various measures - not to restrict travel from China, it's important to say - but to gather better information about what is happening epidemiologically in that country.”

Minister Butler said details of the type of test passengers would need to take will follow, but it was important to ensure they were “robust and verifiable adding that Australia is well positioned in “the fight against Covid” in an environment of largely open borders.

He went on to say that the Federal Government welcomed the resumption of travel between Australia and China, noting many Chinese Australians had been unable to see family and friends for months and, in some cases, years.

Minister Butler said advice provided by Australia’s chief medical officers said travel between the two countries posed no immediate public health threat to Australia, which was well placed to manage the pandemic.