Passengers from six major U.S. cities will no longer need an RT-PCR test seven days before the flight. (File)
Beijing:
China has removed some COVID-19 testing requirements for people flying in countries like the United States and has shortened the pre-departure quarantine for some inbound travelers, as it has fine-tuned its arrangements for dealing with the Omicron variant.
Notices from Chinese embassies and consulates were issued in response to factors including “features of the coronavirus form” that did not provide further details.
From Friday, passengers in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago will not need the RT-PCR test seven days before the RT-PCR test, according to a notice issued by the Chinese embassy late Tuesday. The United States and several consulates.
Those passengers still have to undergo two RT-PCR tests within 48 or 24 hours of their flight – depending on which airport they are flying from – and another pre-flight antigen test, those notices showed.
Travel in and out of China was reduced during the Covid’s outbreak as the country insisted on its “Dynamic Covid Zero” playbook, which restricts passport issuance and renewal, including mandatory quarantine and flight cancellation for most travelers upon arrival.
But the shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant has allowed the ban on international travelers to be eased somewhat. The capital city of Beijing has reduced the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days in the arrival-centric facilities for travelers.
The removal of the RT-PCR test seven days before the flight and the abolition of the antibody test will be applicable to travelers from Canada to China from Sunday, and those who have recovered from the covid infection will no longer need to undergo a chest scan, the Chinese embassy said. Canada made the announcement on Thursday.
The embassies of the UAE, Serbia and Bangladesh said on Wednesday that they had removed some testing requirements and reduced the duration of pre-departure quarantine for employees in Chinese companies from 21 days to 10 days.
According to the embassy’s notification, Bangladesh further reduced the pre-flight quarantine for other passengers from seven days to five days, while Serbia halved the pre-departure quarantine time for certain staff to one week, according to the embassy’s notification.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)
