Coronavirus: England to require negative Covid test for arrivals from China

Passengers travelling from China to England will have to provide a negative Covid test before they board a flight, the government has announced.

The country recently lifted many of its strict coronavirus restrictions for the first time, causing case numbers to increase rapidly.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the measures would take effect from 5 January and that they were being put in place for the time being as a precaution.

Several other countries around the world, including the US, France and India have announced similar rules for travellers from China in recent days.

Why is this happening?

Many of China's strict restrictions have been lifted recently for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020.

This has caused cases to increase quickly in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people.

The easing of restrictions comes at a time when China's borders are set to fully reopen on 8 January for the first time in nearly three years.

With more people from the country set to travel abroad, there is concern it could lead to an increase in global cases.

This is why some countries, including England are requiring Covid testing on visitors from China.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the government was taking a "balanced and precautionary approach", adding the measures were "temporary" as officials assess the latest Covid data.

Some people do not agree with the government's new Covid rules for people from China.

Professor Andrew Pollard, chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told the BBC that the restrictions are unlikely to prevent new Covid variants reaching the UK.

He said: "Trying to ban a virus by adjusting what we do with travel has already been shown not to work very well.

"We've seen that with the bans on travel from various countries during the pandemic, that hasn't stopped those viruses travelling around the world eventually."

In the UK, most of the population is very well protected from severe coronavirus illness, down to a combination of vaccines and repeated natural infection.

The testing requirement only applies to people flying to English airports, as there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

However, the government says it is working with the devolved administrations to get the same rules in place there.