Out of concern about the wave of coronavirus infections in China, Germany wants to impose a coronavirus test requirement for travelers entering the country. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced an amendment to the entry regulation on Thursday. On Wednesday evening, a group of experts from the European Union issued a corresponding recommendation. "Europe has found a common response to the pandemic situation in China," explained Lauterbach. Travelers from China need a negative rapid antigen test before departure. After entering the country, random tests are to be carried out to detect virus variants. Waste water from airplanes will also be tested for this purpose.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has previously criticized the regulations adopted by other EU countries as superfluous. Restrictions to combat the pandemic caused air traffic to collapse in 2020 and resulted in high losses for airlines. Since then, air traffic has recovered thanks to the removal of health restrictions, but has not yet reached pre-crisis levels. According to studies on the Omikron variant, it is clear that travel restrictions can only delay the spread of the virus for a few days, but cannot prevent it, said IATA CEO Willie Walsh. The unjustified measures were causing economic damage.

In addition to some EU states, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and other Asian countries, for example, also require travelers from China to take corona tests. Under pressure from protests and a weakening economy, the government in Beijing announced an abrupt departure from its strict zero Covid policy at the beginning of December. Since then, a corona wave has been rolling through the country with around 1.4 billion inhabitants. The World Health Organization (WHO) accused China of providing too little data on the infection situation. The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected this. The government in Beijing had previously stated that the travel restrictions were inappropriate and unscientific.

The German airport association ADV welcomed the fact that the tests would have to be carried out systematically before departure in China and not only on arrival at European airports, "regardless of the assessment of their usefulness". The health authorities are responsible for organizing the individual checks for variants at the airports, explained ADV CEO Ralph Beisel.

(Report by Alexander Ratz, Ilona Wissenbach, Klaus Lauer; Edited by Hans Busemann; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)