The government has announced that it will scrap Covid restrictions for anyone travelling from China to England.
From today (March 17), the UK Health Security Agency's testing programme for travellers arriving from China to Heathrow Airport will come to an end as the nation increases information regarding testing. China has also reportedly increased the availability of information regarding vaccination and genomic sequencing results, which allows for 'greater transparency' on their 'domestic disease levels'.
The testing programme was originally implemented in January after reports emerged of new variants of the Covid virus circulating in China. According to the government, the programme saw 99 people per flight take a Covid test - with 3,374 tests, 14 positive cases of the virus were identified, of which none were of concern.
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People flying directly or indirectly from mainland China to England or transiting through will also no longer be required to show proof of a negative pre-departure Covid test after April 5.
It follows similar moves taken by the EU which are reducing border measures that examined any new variants from China.
China has reportedly increased sharing of information regarding the virus' levels in the country, with the government stating that the latest data indicated that Covid variants in China are the same as ones already circulating in the UK.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that all regions in the country have passed their infection peak. The government has stressed that it will "continue to maintain a range of contingency measures in reserve, which would enable detection and swift and proportionate action for potential new harmful variants of Covid entering the UK, should the need arise".
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