More countries around the world are demanding that visitors from China take Covid tests, days before it dropped border controls and ushered in an eagerly awaited return to travel for a population that has been largely stuck at home for three years.

From Sunday, China will end the requirement for inbound travellers to quarantine, the latest dismantling of its “zero-Covid” regime that began last month following historic protests against a suffocating series of mass lockdowns. But the abrupt changes have exposed many of China’s 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering an infection wave that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of medication and causing international alarm.