Australia’s chief medical officer advised there was no ‘sufficient public health justification’ for the new travel rules.
Australia has introduced COVID-19 testing for travelers from China, despite the country’s top medical official advising against the move, a newly released letter shows.
In a letter to Health Minister Mark Butler on Saturday, Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, said he did not believe there was a public health justification for introducing new travel requirements for arrivals from China.
Kelly said Australia’s high level of vaccination and previous infection and the fact that the BF.7 Omicron subvariant that appeared to be driving cases in China was already circulating in the country, among other reasons, meant there was “not enough justification to public health”. for the new travel rules.
There was a “strong consensus” among health officials in Australian states and New Zealand that restrictions on travel from China would be “contrary to the current national approach to managing COVID-19 and disproportionate to the risk”, he said.
Kelly recommended that, instead of travel restrictions, the government consider expanding sewage testing, introducing voluntary sampling for international arrivals and improving follow-up of people who test positive for COVID-19 and have a recent travel history. abroad.
Despite the advisory, Butler announced the next day that travelers from China, including Hong Kong and Macau, will be required to produce a negative COVID result within 48 hours of travel.
Butler said he made the decision “out of an abundance of caution, considering the dynamic and evolving situation in China and the potential for new variants to emerge in a high-transmission environment.”
Butler said at the time that he had been “broadly briefed” by Kelly, but did not go into detail about the nature of the advice he received. Butler has since defended the measures as “very modest” and a “balanced decision”.
Kelly’s letter to Butler was published on the website of the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care late on Monday evening.
Australia’s move followed the introduction of similar measures by United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Japan, Taiwan, Italy, France and Spain.
Canada on Saturday also announced it would begin testing arrivals from China starting Jan. 5.
Authorities have raised concerns that rising cases in China after Beijing dismantled its tough “zero-COVID” policy could lead to the emergence of new and more dangerous variants.
Some health experts have criticized the testing requirements, arguing that they will do little to stop the spread of new variants and risk fueling xenophobia.
China has criticized the testing rules as “unnecessary”, while Chinese state media has criticized the measures as “unfounded” and “discriminatory”.
China is set to lift its mandatory quarantine on arrivals from January 8 after three years of strict border controls, but will continue to subject all arrivals to COVID testing.
