China will no longer require travellers to the country to provide a negative PCR test result, abandoning a rule that has been a major deterrent for visitation since the world’s second-largest economy emerged from Covid-19 isolation in January.
From April 29, travellers can instead show negative rapid antigen test results while airlines will not be required to check the proof, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Tuesday at a press briefing in Beijing.
The country earlier loosened the rule for some countries like New Zealand and Malaysia. The move to scrap it entirely comes as air travel in and out of China recovers at a sluggish pace, with the number of international flights in the first quarter at only 12.4 per cent of the 2019 level, government data showed.
China had kept its PCR testing rule in place months after it had jettisoned other travel curbs like quarantine partly because other nations were testing passengers from the country due to fears over new variants, after a massive reopening infection wave saw up to 37 million people infected in one day. Most places, like the United States and Japan, have now stopped testing Chinese travellers.
Still, other deterrents remain before a full recovery in global air travel in and out of China is likely to be seen. Sky-high airfares, limited capacity at airlines and a backlog getting passports and visas approved are holding back travellers and it will take at least a year to get back to pre-pandemic levels, Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines said in February.
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