Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there.
The announcement comes days after the World Health Organization said it was very concerned about rising reports of severe cases across China after the country largely abandoned its “zero-COVID” policy.
Last week India also mandated a COVID-19 test for travelers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, while ordering quarantine for those with symptoms or testing positive. India has also begun randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at aiports. Despite widespread outbreaks that are straining medical resources and disrupting businesses, China on Monday said that passengers arriving from abroad will no longer have to quarantine starting Jan. 8, though a negative test result within 48 hours of departure and in-flight masks are still required.
Japan's new measure aims to “prevent rapid increase of infections in this country” and is not intended to stop global movement of people, Kishida said. Japan will act flexibly while watching the development in China, he added, including halting the planned increase of flights between Japan and China “just to be safe."
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