EU officials ‘strongly’ urge Covid testing for travel – Saudi Gazette

EU officials ‘strongly’ urge Covid testing for travel – Saudi Gazette

BRUSSELS — European Union officials are "strongly" recommending that all member states insist on negative Covid tests from Chinese arrivals before they travel.

Travel in and out of China gets easier from Sunday, as part of the scrapping of the "zero-Covid" policy.

China is currently seeing a surge in Covid cases, with reports of hospitals and crematoriums being overwhelmed.

Some EU countries have already introduced testing - despite earlier advice that it was "unjustified".

Wednesday's recommendation on negative tests came from the EU's Integrated Political Crisis Response group (IPCR), a body made up of officials from the EU's 27 governments.

It also advised that: All passengers on flights to and from China wear face masks, Random testing of flights from China be introduced, and Wastewater monitoring be conducted at airports.

The recommendation comes a day after the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said an "overwhelming" number of member states favored restrictions on Chinese arrivals.

France, Spain and Italy have already introduced testing - but others, such as Germany, had been monitoring the situation. England, outside the EU, requires pre-flight testing on China arrivals from Thursday.

Despite the recommendation, it's not known if an EU-wide policy will be introduced - but individual states can set