The EU is debating a bloc-wide response to the abrupt end of China’s zero-Covid lockdown policy, as capitals around the world seek to tackle the country’s spike in infections.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new prime minister, on Thursday called on the EU to follow Rome’s decision to test all air arrivals from China for coronavirus As member state officials gathered for urgent talks on a common approach.
Meloni said mandatory testing in Italy, announced on Wednesday, would be “ineffective if not followed at European level”. She added: “We want Europe to go in this direction.”
The European Commission has convened a meeting of the EU’s health and safety committee, made up of officials from member states, to “discuss the Covid-19 situation in China and possible measures to be taken in a coordinated manner”. .
“Coordinating national responses to serious cross-border health threats is crucial,” the committee said after the meeting ended. “We must act together and will continue our discussions.”
A huge rise in Covid cases in China and a rush in international travel bookings from the country have already prompted the United States to Require negative test results for new arrivals from China in addition to removals from Italy and other states. Japan, India and Taiwan have also imposed testing requirements on Chinese arrivals, in anticipation of a surge of visitors.
The sudden reimposition of these travel restrictions, lifted in Western countries for most of the past year, is the latest repercussion of Beijing’s decision to abandon its draconian zero-Covid policy, which has sparked a wave of coronavirus infecting tens of millions of people in China every day.
Stocks fell in Asia and Europe on Thursday as investors worried about the surge’s impact on the global economy.
Italy, which said 52% of passengers on a post-Christmas flight from China to Milan had tested positive for coronavirus, wrote to the commission in its push for a bloc-wide policy on Chinese arrivals. The EU’s free movement Schengen area means there are no restrictions on people moving across most of the continent.
Orazio Schillaci, the country’s health minister, said Italy would use genetic sequencing of positive test results to determine if new variants were emerging in China. It is feared that any new strain will pose a greater health threat than the variants already in circulation for which vaccines used in the West offer good protection.
Any EU decision would only be advisory to member state governments, although the health and safety committee was key in sharing information and agreeing common approaches at the height of the pandemic in Europe.
After Thursday’s meeting, the French health ministry said it was seeking to act in a coordinated manner with its European counterparts. He added that the meeting highlighted the need for a coherent EU strategy, as well as more data and further work on measures to protect people and keep travelers informed.
But he added that “at this stage, the number of Chinese travelers to Europe is limited and will remain so for several weeks while China’s reopening measures are put into motion and take effect.”
The governments of the Nordic countries, Germany and the United Kingdom also said they had no intention of following Italy’s lead or awaiting further information.
Norway and Finland are not considering imposing any conditions on arrivals from China as there is already a significant amount of Covid infections in Scandinavian countries and few travelers from the Asian nation at this time of the year, according to health authorities.
“It’s useless,” Jari Jalava, an infectious disease expert at the Finnish health authority, told state broadcaster Yle.
Germany’s health ministry said it was “monitoring the situation closely and coordinating closely with our international partners”. Spokesman Sebastian Gülde said: “So far, the Ministry of Health has no indication that any worrying variants have arisen in the context of the epidemic in China, compared to the variants that are currently circulating. in Germany.”
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome, Richard Milne in Oslo and Guy Chazan in Berlin
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