On the evening of Wednesday 4 January, Health and Home Affairs experts from the Member States meeting in the crisis management group (IPCR) managed to agree on a series of precautionary measures to respond to the surge in Covid-19 cases in China. However, they failed to agree on mandatory negative tests for those people travelling to the EU from China.
Nevertheless, at this stage, it was only strongly recommended that the Member States require negative tests taken not more than 48 hours before departure from China, a final press release said. They also have not yet been able to agree on measures such as random testing of arriving passengers and sequencing in cases of positive results in order to detect variants, nor on testing and sequencing of wastewater, said an EU source, although an agreement could still be reached in the next few days, according to this source. On the other hand, the Member States managed to agree on the requirement to wear a mask on planes from or to China and on health advice for travellers. The IPCR experts also agreed to discuss all these measures again in mid-January. The meeting, convened by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, lasted 7 hours. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate the EU27 response to the surge in Covid-19 cases in China, which will lift all travel restrictions on 8 January and has threatened its international partners with retaliation.
Unsurprisingly, it was the issue of compulsory tests on departure from China or arrival in the EU, required so far by three member countries including France, Spain and Italy and soon by Sweden, that was proving to be the most difficult on Wednesday 4 January, a source said.
The day before, scientific experts, meeting in the European Commission’s Health Security Committee, had prepared a draft opinion with several recommendations (see EUROPE 13091/3), which the IPCR experts were also invited to adopt.
In addition to requiring testing on departure from China, the draft suggested testing wastewater on planes, masks to be worn on planes from China, improved genomic sequencing at airports and enhanced surveillance of the virus in the Member States.
Discontent in the air transport sector
Earlier today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) criticised countries for “introducing Covid-19 testing and other measures for travellers from China when the virus is already circulating widely within their borders. It is extremely disappointing to see this knee-jerk reinstatement of measures that have proven ineffective over the last three years”, it wrote in a statement.
“Research conducted around the arrival of the Omicron variant (late 2021) concluded that the introduction of travel barriers made no difference to the peak spread of infections. At most, the restrictions delayed that peak by a few days. If a new variant emerges in any part of the world, the same situation can be expected. That is why governments should listen to the experts, including the WHO, who advise against travel restrictions”. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. Link to the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/4sx (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Émilie Vanderhulst)