Following the European Union's "strong recommendation" that its 27 Member States introduce a mandatory Covid-19 test for travellers from China, Belgium announced that it will take the advice and require proof of a negative test.
While the EU advice for Member States to make a negative test mandatory for travellers from China is not binding, Belgium's Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke – who has been pushing for a joint approach since earlier this week – is still satisfied with the outcome.
"Real progress has been made towards a joint European approach," said Vandenbroucke. "Now, there is a strong recommendation for all European Member States to ask people travelling from China to Europe to prove that they have tested negative for Covid-19 before getting on the plane."
He then immediately announced that Belgium would follow this EU advice, and require a negative Covid-19 test for all travellers entering the country via a direct flight from China. "We are going to say: you must have proof of a negative test in China in advance, otherwise you cannot come here."
Monitoring wastewater
Several countries, such as the US, Japan, Italy, France and Spain, already decided on their own to only allow entrance to travellers from China if they can present a negative Covid test. Earlier this week, Vandenbroucke already said that he considered this measure "absolutely sensible," but "if you do not take a European approach, it makes very little sense for a small country like Belgium."
While Vandenbroucke said that a general obligation for all Member States "would have been ideal," he believes that most countries will follow the EU's strong recommendation for a common approach. Additionally, the European recommendation to monitor the wastewater of planes coming from China – proposed by Belgium – was received very well.
"In practice, we advocated collecting the wastewater from planes coming from China separately at airports and examining whether variants of the virus turn up in it," he explained. "That idea is now also being adopted at the European level, and there is a recommendation that all Member States start doing what we are already doing."
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From Sunday, Chinese people will be allowed to travel abroad again, at a time when the virus is surging in the country – a situation that is worrying many countries. The number of infections is rising sharply and, according to unofficial reports, the number of deaths is also rising.
Yet, it is not the wave of infections itself that is causing international concern, but rather fears that the Chinese authorities would not communicate in a timely and transparent manner about possible new variants. "We continue to ask China to provide reliable information faster and more regularly," stressed World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
