Australia drops COVID testing requirements for travellers arriving from China

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia will drop the requirement for travellers arriving from China to test for COVID-19 before departure from midnight on March 11, the country’s health minister said in a statement on Thursday.

The measures also apply to travellers from Hong Kong and Macau.

“This is a sensible, measured decision based on decreasing COVID-19 case numbers in China, regular data updates from China on case numbers, and the fact that we have strengthened our capacity to detect and respond to emerging variants of concern within Australia of international origin,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.

Several other countries that implemented similar measures such as the United States, South Korea and Japan have recently either repealed their arrangements or announced an intention to repeal them, he added.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)