Mandatory COVID testing for travellers from China defies clear logic
The Sydney Morning HeraldJan 02, 2023
Internal documents made public on Tuesday, reveal that Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, had advised the government against imposing any restrictions on travelers coming from China just a day before Canberra announced new testing requirements.
Kelly argued to Health Minister Mark Butler that there was no "sufficient public health rationale" for new travel rules, citing Australia's high level of vaccination and prior infection as well as the fact that the BF.7 Omicron subvariant was already circulating in the country.
It's unacceptable that the Australian government has imposed new restrictions claiming they were out of an abundance of caution even though available evidence and scientific information indicate that Australians have already been exposed to variants circulating in China. Rather than protecting the nation, this move will only interrupt family reunions and affect the country's economic activity.
The Australian government is right to adopt precautionary measures as China arrivals resume. Although an imminent public health threat is unlikely, China has long failed to provide trustworthy information so other variants could be circulating unreported there. This is a prudent move given the extraordinary mass infection occurring in the PRC.
There's a 50% chance that China will first reach 250k confirmed COVID cases per day by May 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.