The violent corona wave in China is also causing concern abroad: After the lifting of most corona restrictions in China, Italy became the first European country to introduce mandatory corona tests for travelers from the People's Republic on Wednesday.

The USA will also introduce a test requirement for travelers from China.

He had "ordered mandatory Covid-19 antigen swabs and the associated virus sequencing for all passengers coming from China and traveling through Italy," said Italian Health Minister Orazio Schillaci.

This measure is "essential to ensure the monitoring and identification of all variants of the virus to protect the Italian population".

On Tuesday, one day before the nationwide regulation, the Lombardy region in northern Italy introduced the relevant tests.

According to the Foreign Ministry, air passengers from China must undergo corona tests at Milan's Malpensa Airport by at least January 30.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Lombardy was one of the hardest-hit regions in the world.

The city of Bergamo in particular had become a hotspot in Europe and a symbol of the first corona wave.

In March 2020 alone, 670 people died of Covid-19 in the city of 120,000.

The USA are also introducing compulsory testing

In the United States, travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, or those who have stayed in China up to ten days before entering the United States, are to be tested with a PCR test as of January 5.

The health authority CDC announced this in a statement on Wednesday.

The test is mandatory for all passengers, regardless of their nationality and vaccination status.

US officials said on Tuesday that the government was "following the science and the advice of health experts" and considering steps "to protect the American people."

In particular, the lack of “transparent data” from China on the extent of the corona wave is causing growing international concern.

Above all, a lack of data from gene sequencing makes it difficult to identify possible new virus variants and to react accordingly.

The French government announced that it would examine all "useful measures" in "consultation with its European partners and within the existing legal framework".

The Ministry of Health and Prevention is “following the development of the situation in China very closely,” it said in Paris.

According to estimates, around one million dead in China

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed international concerns as unfounded.

The corona situation in China is currently "broadly predictable and under control," he said.

Western media reporting on the rising corona numbers in China is “completely biased”.

In early December, Beijing backed away from its strict zero-Covid policy in a radical about-face.

Since then, the corona virus has been spreading rapidly in China, and the country is experiencing the highest increase in infections in the world.

According to estimates, around one million people could die in China in the coming months as a result of a corona infection.

Hospitals are already overcrowded in many places.

Exact official corona numbers are no longer available in China.

According to the authorities, it is now impossible to estimate the number of corona cases after the end of the test obligation.

China had therefore stopped publishing daily corona data on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported 5,231 new infections and three deaths, but the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher.

On Monday, Beijing also announced the end of the corona quarantine requirement for returnees from abroad, triggering a rush of Chinese people willing to travel to booking platforms.

Countries such as Japan and India then announced mandatory testing for all travelers coming from China.

On Wednesday, Taiwan also announced that travelers from China would be tested for the corona virus.

Japan also ordered to limit the number of flights from China.