Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke announced on Friday that Belgium had decided to lift the Covid-19 testing requirement for travellers coming from China. The measure had been put in place in January after a rise in Covid-19 cases in the Asian country.
Vandenbroucke stated that "after further evaluation, it appears that these measures are no longer necessary." A Royal Decree has been signed to remove the testing requirement, which will come into effect from 27 February.
The Health Minister explained that "incoming travellers from China do not appear to pose any risk to our high level of protection against Covid-19." He added that "no new variants (other than Omicron) have been identified." Any Covid-19 tests taken by incoming will be done on a voluntary basis, themselves set to end in mid-March.
However, the analysis of wastewater from flights from China will continue with the Risk Management Group (RMG) looking into possible new initiatives regarding the filtering of wastewater.
