The European Union is strongly urging member states to require people travelling from China to produce a negative Covid test before they travel. Belgium is introducing this requirement.
Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist) has welcomed the European decisions that also include strongly recommending masking on flights from China and checks for new coronavirus variants on refuse water from flights from the People’s republic.
“Real progress has been made in the direction of a joint, European approach,” said Mr Vandenbroucke. “We pressed hard for this because it requires a European approach. Requiring people from China to produce a negative Covid test ahead of departure is highly recommended. We will apply this to direct flights between Belgium and China. We will tell people, you need a negative test result beforehand. Otherwise you can’t come here.”
Belgium has also welcomed the EU recommendation for checks on refuse water from flights from China: “We called for refuse water from flights from China to be collected separately at airports and for checks to see if any new variants materialise. The EU adopted this recommendation and Belgium will introduce it” said the heath minister.
Belgium will start its checks on refuse water on Saturday: “It’s an experiment. Refuse water will be collected from a flight from China”.
Several European countries have already introduced requirements for a negative Covid result for travellers from China including Italy, France and Spain. Mr Vandenbroucke believes this is “absolutely meaningful” but that a European approach is needed because if only a small country like Belgium applied the measure there wouldn’t be much point.
The Belgian health minister believes most EU states will introduce the test requirement, though a general requirement would have been better.
Chinese nationals are free to travel abroad starting Sunday following a relaxation of Covid restrictions in the People’s Republic, but with Covid surging in the country there are fears travellers could fuel infections abroad and transmit new variants.