China ends Covid-19 travel restrictions for inbound passengers from today

China will lift its quarantine requirement for inbound travellers starting from January 8 It will also resume issuing visas for residents to travel overseasChinas immigration authorities have said that they will start receiving applications for issuing passports for tourism and visits abroad beginning January 8 NHK World reportedThe easing came days after mainland China diluted its harsh COVID zero policy and slightly lifted its restrictions on international travellersEarlier the Chinese government announced plans to ease border restrictions and resume overseas visits in an orderly manner as per the international COVID19 situationAs per the NHK World report Chinese media had said that access to major online travel sites for bookings to popular destinations including Japan and Thailand increased tenfold after the governments announcementMeanwhile China has imposed a ban on such agencies from accepting bookings of group tours and giving sales of package tours according to NHK World China will lift the travel restrictions from January 8 the Civil Aviation Administration of China CAAC said on WednesdayAlso Read WHO chief asks China for rapid reliable data on Covid19 deathsThe CAAC said that it will resume international passenger traffic according to Global Times According to the new policies released on the official website of the CAAC China will stop designating inbound highrisk flights and call an end to the 75 per cent restriction for passenger capacity on inbound flightsChinese and foreign airlines will arrange scheduled passenger flights in line with bilateral agreements The CAAC said that it will gradually resume applications for chartered international passenger flights as per the Global Times reportIt will also cancel measures impacting inbound flights including closedloop management of domestic and overseas crews COVID testing and quarantineAccording to Global Times new measures have been introduced to optimize antiCOVID management as the government downgraded management of COVID19 to Class B and cancelled quarantine requirements on inbound travellers from January 8 2023However people coming to China will still need a negative virus test within 48 hours and passengers will be required to wear protective masks on board an online post from the National Health Commission saidWorld Health Organisation WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has once again asked China for reliable data on Covid hospitalizations and deaths in the countryWe continue to ask China for more rapid regular reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths as well as more comprehensive realtime viral sequencing Tedros said at a media briefing in Geneva Wednesday according to the script of the media briefing posted on the WHO websiteThis comes as WHO held a highlevel meeting with counterparts in China last week to discuss the surge in cases and hospitalisations Subsequently WHOs Technical Advisory Group on SARSCoV2 Virus Evolution and the COVID19 clinical management expert network groups both met with Chinese expertsThe WHO chief said that the UN agency is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination including booster doses to protect against hospitalization and deathLast week a number of countries imposed mandatory Covid testing for travellers from China amid a rapidly developing situation in the country They made the Covid19 test mandatory for flyers coming from mainland China due to a surge in coronavirus infections after the country rolled back its stringent zeroCovid policyOn Tuesday Beijing accused these countries are imposing COVID19 entry restrictions without the presence of a scientific basis to support such measuresSome of these measures are disproportionate and simply unacceptable 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 Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on January 3This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever