Alessandro Bremec
Passengers arriving from China are tested for Covid-19 on arrival in Milan, Italy.
A Government decision on whether Chinese visitors to New Zealand need to return a negative Covid test is still pending, while experts err in favour of testing after earlier saying it was probably not needed.
China is now opening up its borders after years of strict enforcements and residents will soon be able to start applying to leave the country.
However, the loosening of domestic restrictions led to a reported explosion in cases in China just as borders are about to open.
Countries including Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have already imposed screening requirements, with them requiring travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to provide a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed entry.
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Australia’s decision came despite chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly advising the Government he did not believe there was “a sufficient public health rationale for imposing restrictions on travellers from China” and enhanced surveillance would be preferable.
THOMAS MANCH/STUFF
PM Jacinda Ardern discusses her meeting with China’s Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec forum in Thailand. (First published November 11, 2022.)
A statement from duty minister Stuart Nash’s office on Monday said the Government expected to announce on Tuesday whether Chinese visitors would need to return a negative Covid test before entering New Zealand.
Just after midday, Nash said an announcement was still expected on Tuesday “but things can change” and it could be on Wednesday.
The Government was basing its decision on evidence, he said. Covid-19 Response Minster Ayesha Verrall, an infectious disease expert, was involved in the decision.
The Ministry of Health’s Dr Sharon Sime, from the office of the director of public health, last week said arrivals from China “do not significantly change the risk of Covid-19 in New Zealand and the current public health measures remain appropriate for managing the pandemic”.
Supplied
Dr Michael Baker backs border testing for Chinese visitors.
The ministry was not then advising testing of international visitors should be reintroduced but continued to encourage recent arrivals to test if they had symptoms.
Dr Graham Le Gros, an immunologist and director of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, last week said New Zealand probably didn’t need to test visitors from China.
New Zealand already had mutated versions of the virus, which were better at avoiding vaccine protection, but people were mostly well-protected from the versions of the virus that would likely come from China, he said.
But on Tuesday Le Gros said there was a catch – China was opaque in the information it released about Covid, meaning it was hard to gauge how serious the problem was. New Zealand should consider testing if the situation was notably bad in China, he said.
“Do you want a whole lot of sick people on your doorstep?”
Epidemiologist Michael Baker last week said the threat to New Zealand was not so much from incoming travellers.
“We’re effectively exposed to a whole range of sub-variants from around the globe now, so an increase of imported cases poses a very small risk,” he said.
“Any new sub-variants won’t make a lot of difference.”
However, he on Sunday backed pre-departure testing because it would help cut down transmission by catching those who were infected before they travelled and encourage prevention behaviours as people limited their exposure risk.
