The government of Morocco on Sunday became the first country in 2023 to ban travelers from China outright as a massive wave of Chinese coronavirus sweeps across that country.

Several other countries announced travel restrictions over the weekend, including Australia, which had previously stated that travel restrictions were unnecessary.

The Kingdom of Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday it has “closely followed, in recent weeks, the development of the [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic in the People’s Republic of China.”

“In the light of the evolution of the health situation related to [Chinese coronavirus] in China, and of the regular and direct contacts with the Chinese side, and in order to avoid a new wave of contaminations in Morocco and all its consequences, the Moroccan Authorities decided to prohibit access to the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco to all travelers, regardless of their nationality, coming from the People’s Republic of China,” the ministry said.

“This exceptional measure in no way affects the sincere friendship between the two peoples nor the strategic partnership between the two countries, to which the Kingdom remains firmly attached,” the statement added.

The Moroccan ban on Chinese travelers is scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, January 3, and will last until further notice.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Morocco hosted about 200,000 Chinese tourists a year before the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and was hoping to build up to 500,000 a year.

Spain, Morocco’s neighbor across the Strait of Gibraltar, joined the growing number of nations requiring negative coronavirus tests from Chinese travelers on Friday.

Airport staff wait from passengers coming from China in front of a COVID-19 testing area set at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. France says it will require negative COVID-19 tests of all passengers arriving from China and is urging French citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Australia imposed negative test requirements for Chinese travelers on Sunday. The restrictions, set to take effect on Thursday, are a dramatic shift from statements by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week that no such measures were needed. 

Albanese has been trying to repair relations with China which were damaged when his predecessor Scott Morrison insisted on investigating the true origins of the coronavirus. The Chinese Communist government, which strenuously opposes all such investigations, retaliated with economic sanctions against Australia.

On Sunday, Australian Health Minister Mark Butler very apologetically announced that requiring coronavirus tests for Chinese visitors now seems like a prudent measure, and very delicately suggested this measure was necessary because the Chinese government has not been honest about the wildfire spread of the omicron strain over the past few months.

Shoppers return to a popular mall following the easing of pandemic restrictions in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. Australia and Canada have joined a growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to take a COVID-19 test prior to boarding their flight, as China battles a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

“The Australian government shares the concerns that have been expressed over recent days by a number of other governments, and importantly by the World Health Organization,” Butler said, alluding to the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) complaint on Thursday about the “absence of comprehensive information from China.”

On Friday, W.H.O. made the latest in a series of requests for China to begin sharing data on hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccinations in real-time, along with genetic sequencing data on the coronavirus strains infecting Chinese patients. The Chinese Communist regime has ignored all such requests to date.

Qatar on Monday joined the list of countries requiring negative coronavirus tests within the previous 48 hours from Chinese travelers. Qatar’s enhanced testing requirements will go into effect on Tuesday.