According to the defence secretary, the UK government is considering enforcing Covid restrictions on Chinese visitors.
TBen Wallace stated that the Department of Transport would follow medical advice and consult with the Department of Health.
Previously, an ex-health minister urged the government to consider testing Covid arrivals from China.
In response to China’s coronavirus outbreak, a number of countries have standards requested testing mandatory.
When asked if indeed the government would consider restrictions, Mr Wallace responded, “The government is looking at that, it’s under review, we noticed obviously what the US has done, India, and I think Italy has looked at it.”
“Obviously, we keep all health threats to the UK, wherever they may be, under constant review.”
UK Covid modelling data will no longer be published.
Covid-19 in the Great Britain
Several countries, including the United States, Japan, Italy, and Malaysia, are now requiring testing of Chinese visitors.
This comes as a result of a surge in cases in China regarding Beijing’s decision to effectively end its zero-Covid policy.
UK Health Minister Will Quince said he knew that many people would be concerned “about the news coming out of China” and the government was taking the situation “incredibly seriously”.
However, there was “no evidence at this point of a new variant from China”, which he said would be the “key threat”.
“At the moment, the variant that is currently prevalent in China is already prevalent here in the UK.”
The Scottish government, meanwhile, stated that it does not currently have any plans to alter the travel requirements and will keep collaborating with the UK Health Security Agency and other nations to “monitor the spread of harmful variants.”
In 2019, 813,532 visas were issued to Chinese citizens seeking to travel to the United Kingdom. Due to Beijing’s strict Covid border controls, this fell to less than 200,000 over the next two years.
