Officials from the British Department of Transport and the Home Office will consider on Thursday (December 29) whether they should follow the example of the United States and other countries in imposing restrictions on travelers from China.
(Editor's note: Since China announced on the 26th that it would allow people to go abroad in an orderly manner, different countries have responded differently. It seems that the UK belongs to the category of "cautiously welcoming guests".)
According to the British "Daily Telegraph" report, the British Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health and Social Care are expected to decide today whether the United Kingdom will follow the policies of the United States and Italy, and consider whether to implement additional measures for the entry of six direct flights from China. Anti-epidemic measures require Chinese passengers to be tested when entering the country.
Paul Charles, chief executive of The PC Agency, a travel consulting company, said that the British government was criticized for not taking preventive measures in the early stages of the epidemic to prevent the virus from being brought into the UK via Chinese flights.
He said it was now "inevitable" for the British government to take action.
"Governments have learned their lessons from the initial outbreak. One of those lessons is that they have to be more careful with how they work with these kinds of restrictions," Charles said. "You can't have Italy and the US do one thing and other countries don't follow suit."
As the number of people infected with the new crown virus in China soared, global concerns about the outbreak of the new crown virus in China have escalated.
U.S. federal health officials said on Wednesday (28th) that regardless of the passenger's nationality or vaccination status, any passenger from China or who has been to China within 10 days before departure must provide a nucleic acid or antigen negative certificate.
On the same day, the Italian Minister of Health also announced mandatory testing for all travelers from China.
The British prime minister's spokesman said earlier on Wednesday that restrictions "are not something we are considering", but the moves by the US and Italy could have a snowball effect as similar precautions are being taken in Europe.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated earlier that the epidemic prevention measures of various countries should be scientific and moderate, and should not affect normal personnel exchanges.
This article is reproduced with permission from Lianhe Zaobao
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