Foreign Business Airlines slam Covid-19 tests for China travelers
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PARIS: A global airline association criticized on Wednesday decisions by governments to impose coronavirus tests and other measures on travelers from China as ineffective "knee-jerk" reactions.
A growing number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan and France, have insisted that such travelers provide negative Covid-19 tests before arrival.
The measures have been imposed as China has been hit by a surge in infections after Beijing abandoned its strict containment measures last month.
"It is extremely disappointing to see this knee-jerk reinstatement of measures that have proven ineffective over the last three years," Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said in a statement.
IATA, which represents 300 airlines accounting for 83 percent of total air traffic, argued that the coronavirus was already circulating widely within the borders of countries imposing the test
"Research undertaken around the arrival of the Omicron variant (in late 2021) concluded that putting barriers in the way of travel made no difference to the peak spread of infections," Walsh sai
"We have the tools to manage Covid-19 without resorting to ineffective measures that cut off international connectivity, damage economies and destroy jobs," he added.