Belgium will not impose COVID-19 tests for travellers from China but will do so if it is rolled out across the EU.
Several countries, including Italy, France, the US, Japan, and Israel, are imposing PCR tests for travellers coming from China, which has been facing a wave of COVID-19 cases since putting an end to its “zero COVID policy.”
On Tuesday, Beijing condemned the imposition of PCR tests, calling these measures “discriminatory” and “disproportionate and simply unacceptable.”
“We do not believe the entry restriction measures some countries have taken against China are science-based. […] We firmly reject using COVID measures for political purposes and will take corresponding measures in response to varying situations based on the principle of reciprocity,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In Belgium, the Risk Management Group met on Monday and concluded that a uniform decision should be taken at the EU level. And while the country has raised the state of alert over the situation, it has not made COVID tests compulsory for travellers from China.
Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke pleaded for a common EU approach rendering the tests mandatory to enter the territory of the EU.
Vandenbroucke believes that mandatory COVID tests for travellers to Belgium would not be an efficient measure, given the small size of the country and the few direct flights from China.
“To be effective, we must reintroduce the Passenger Locator Form (PLF) to allow for tracking of people coming from China,” Vandenbroucke estimates.
However, Belgium has taken two measures. Firstly, wastewater from planes from China landing at Brussels Airport will be collected and analysed to detect new variants.
“As we are not quite sure of the information we receive from China, we want to carry out a screening ourselves,” the minister told LN24 on Monday.
Secondly, travellers returning from China and having symptoms will have to take a PCR or antigen test, which should then be sent to a laboratory with genomic sequencing technology.
(Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
