Medical officials within Germany are calling for blanket COVID restrictions to be implemented across the EU on arrivals from China.
Fearing the possibility of new variants emerging from China, which is seeing a major spike in COVID-19 cases, medical officials from Germany are now calling for the EU to implement blanket restrictions on arrivals from the Communist country.
Many nations in both Europe and beyond have already implemented such restrictions on the Communist-led nation, greatly upsetting officials in Beijing, who have alleged that such moves are not backed by science.
Such a view does not seem to be shared by medical experts in Germany, with the chairman of the Federal Association of Public Health Physicians, Johannes Nießen, calling for testing requirements to be put in place across the European Union.
“In the event of an explosive spread, as is currently the case in China, you have to expect the virus to mutate,” Der Spiegel reports the expert as saying, with the expert backing what he called a “Europe-wide uniform protection concept”.
“Every traveller from China should be tested when entering the EU using a quick test,” he continued. “Anyone who has become infected should definitely have to go into isolation.”
Nießen’s call for harsh travel restrictions to be reimposed on arrivals from China across Europe is not likely to please the country’s government, which has been vocally opposed to the restrictions already put in place by countries such as Italy, the UK and Japan.
“Some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting only Chinese travellers,” one Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman reportedly lamented. “This lacks scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable.”
The spokeswoman went on to warn that China was looking at taking “countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity” against the countries who imposed restrictions.
However, with the number of cases spiking in China since Beijing dropped its failing zero COVID policy, it appears highly unlikely that many western governments will be willing to forego restrictions, with many officials seemingly fearing that the emergence of a new phase of the pandemic.
For example, having just imposed similar restrictions on arrivals from the country, France is now also calling for lockdown measures to be implemented against Chinese arrivals across the EU.
“France will push for this methodology to be applied across the EU,” Reuters reports France’s Health Minister, François Braun, as saying.