Spain restores controls for travelers from China, France is thinking

The Spanish government announced on Friday 30 December the establishment of « controls » in its airports for travelers coming from China to ensure that they were not carriers of the Covid virus. In a brief press conference in Madrid, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, indicated that these travelers would be asked “proof that they are negative (…) or a complete vaccination schedule”.

Spain thus joins the United States, Japan and Taiwan, which have reestablished health checks for travelers from China, while travel restrictions outside the country have been lifted and cases of Covid-19 contamination is increasing exponentially. In Europe, only Italy has so far imposed a test on passengers coming from China.

“Unjustified” decision

Thursday, December 29, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) had yet judged “ unjustified » the introduction of compulsory screening for Covid-19 within the European Union. EU countries “have relatively high levels of immunization and vaccination” and the “Variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU”said the ECDC in a statement, explaining that such a measure was not necessary at the level of the European Union as a whole.

Conversely, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, estimated « understandable » control measures targeting travelers from China, taken by some countries. “In the absence of complete information from China, it is understandable that countries take the measures they believe will protect their people”he said on Twitter, urging Beijing to communicate more about the state of the pandemic in the country.

In France, the government said » study the appropriate measures to protect French people that could be taken in this epidemic context at national and European level”, while estimating that the number of travelers from China was for the moment « limit « .