PASSENGERS arriving in the UK from China must have a negative Covid test before travelling under a major rule shake-coming in on January 5.
Ministers had been facing pressure to test arrivals at the border to contain any new mutations after a surge in infections.
Visitors from China must be screened for Covid amid a huge spike in infections
And now the Department of Health has announced people arriving from China will be asked to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test.
The UK Health Security Agency will also launch surveillance from January 8, which will see a sample of passengers arriving in England from China tested for the virus as they arrive.
The Government said that airlines will be required to check that passengers from China have a negative test before departure, with travellers required to show evidence of a negative test.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said that the UK was taking a “balanced and precautionary approach”, describing the measures as “temporary” while officials assess the latest Covid-19 data.
“This allows our world-leading scientists at the UK Health Security Agency to gain rapid insight into potential new variants circulating in China,” he said.
“The best defence against the virus, however, remains the vaccine. NHS staff have done an incredible job delivering over 150 million jabs across the UK.
“It isn’t too late to come forward, for your first, second, third, or autumn booster – it’s quick and easy, and you can book online, on the NHS app, or just turn up at one of the many walk-in centres across the UK.”
Ministers previously said the situation was being kept under review as Beijing announced plans to start reissuing passports and visas for overseas trips.
The US, Italy, India, South Korea and Japan have all imposed curbs after the end of Beijing’s aggressive zero-Covid policy saw cases of the bug surge.
On one flight from China to Italy more than half of all passengers were found to have Covid.
Some Tory MPs had called for a more robust response from the Government, even as the chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Professor Andrew Pollard, said the imposition of travel restrictions was unlikely to stop variants reaching the UK.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “Trying to ban a virus by adjusting what we do with travel has already been shown not to work very well.
“We have seen that with the bans on travel from various countries during the pandemic.”
He added: “Testing people travelling from China probably doesn’t really answer the question about whether any new variant that is detected is going to be a problem here.”