EU member state officials convened for urgent talks on Thursday in an attempt to co-ordinate a bloc-wide approach to China’s abrupt ending of its zero-Covid containment policy, as capitals across the world weighed their responses to surging infections in the country.
A huge increase in Covid-19 cases in China and a rush of international travel bookings from the country prompted the US to demand negative test results for new arrivals from China, while a slew of other countries including Italy put in place testing requirements for air passengers.
The sudden reimposition of some travel restrictions, lifted in western countries for most of the past year, is the latest repercussion from Beijing’s decision to scrap its draconian zero-Covid policies, sparking an unprecedented coronavirus wave that is infecting tens of millions of people in China each day.