Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced new Covid-related restrictions on arrivals from China, set to take effect by the end of the week, in response to concerns that Beijing’s abrupt loosening of its previous zero-Covid regime could cause a wave of foreign outbreaks and facilitate the rise of dangerous new variants.
In an announcement at the prime minister’s office today, Kishida announced that people who arrive from China must be tested for Covid, with those testing positive required to quarantine for a week, NHK reported.
Additionally, new flights from China will only be permitted to arrive at four airports in Japan, and Japan will limit the number of flights from China that can arrive, Kishida said, according to the Japan Times.
Following nationwide protests opposing the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal zero-Covid policy, the Chinese authorities this month rapidly dropped many of the most stringent restrictions that had been in place, with previous quarantine requirements to be reversed next month.
Meanwhile, a wave of new infections has swept the country, as the authorities are pushing false case counts that ignore most of the cases and deaths that have resulted.
The Party has spent the previous two years boosting disinformation about the safety of Western-produced mRNA vaccines, and it has declined to authorize their use for Chinese citizens.
The boost in outbound air travel from China has raised concerns about a new international wave of infections and the possible emergence of new variants.
Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS that limited immunity in China could lead to the “explosion of a new variant.”