Inbound travellers no longer require negative Covid PCR test: China

Beijing [China], April 25 : China on Tuesday said travellers entering the country are no longer required to show a negative PCR test for Covid. It comes as another step toward reopening after a long period of pandemic-era isolation, The New York Times reported.

A spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry said, beginning April 29, people going to China "can" take an antigen test to "replace" the previously mandated P.C.R. test within 48 hours before boarding their flight.

The spokeswoman, Mao Ning, added that airlines would not check test results before boarding. She did not say whether others, such as immigration officials, would check.

Notices by Chinese embassies overseas said that travellers arriving in China would still need to fill out a health declaration form and that customs officials would conduct unspecified spot checks, according to The New York Times.

China-based SHINE recently reported that New XBB COVID sub-variants had been reported in China. In the past week, there were 12 new sub-variants detected in China.

China from December 1 to April 20 reported 32,993 effective genomic sequences of domestic cases. All were confirmed as Omicron variants covering 117 sub-variants, with BA.5.2 and BF.7 as dominants, according to the weekly report issued by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

The centre detected 603 cases of variants under strict inspection, including the 12 sub-variants being found for the first time, according to SHINE.