UK move to test travelers called political maneuver


LONDON — Scientists have dismissed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to impose COVID-19 tests on travelers from the Chinese mainland, calling it a "purely political maneuver", The Guardian reported.
Scientists said testing travelers from the Chinese mainland will "make no difference to the rise or fall" in the number of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, according to the report published on Saturday.
UK chief medical officer Chris Whitty briefed Health Secretary Steve Barclay on Thursday, saying that no clear evidence of significant benefits was shown from the testing.
Quoting The Observer, the report said Barclay had discussed the issues with Sunak, but the prime minister decided that it was "more important for Britain to align itself with those nations — the US, Japan, Italy and Spain — that had already imposed such tests".
"I don't think it's likely the UK will get any public health benefit from this measure," professor Mark Woolhouse from the University of Edinburgh was quoted as saying in the report. "This can only have been done for political reasons."
Woolhouse said another reason for testing was to track new COVID-19 variants, but no one in the UK seemed worried about the new variant XBB.1.5, which now accounts for about 40 percent of cases in the United States.
Professor Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia also told the newspaper that point-of-entry and point-of-exit screening for serious infections have been shown on many occasions to be ineffective at controlling diseases.
"This isn't going to protect the UK population because it isn't going to stop the spread," Hunter said.
The systematic pre-departure or on-arrival testing of travelers from the Chinese mainland is "neither scientifically justified nor risk-based", the Europe branch of Airports Council International, or ACI EUROPE, said.
In a news release on Dec 31, the organization expressed its regret regarding the actions of a number of states within the European Union and globally for "unilaterally imposing health-related travel requirements".
Unacceptable measures
Some countries' entry restrictions, which target only China, lack scientific basis, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Tuesday, adding that some excessive pandemic prevention measures are unacceptable.
China, which hopes to strengthen communication with the world to overcome the pandemic, is firmly opposed to manipulating prevention measures for political purposes, and will respond to such practices according to the principle of reciprocity, Mao said.
Citing health experts from different countries, Mao said the COVID-19 strain spreading in China has already spread in other parts of the world, and a new strain can emerge in any place, thus it's not necessary to impose special entry restrictions against China.
When taking pandemic prevention measures, countries should avoid political manipulation and discrimination, and should not hinder normal people-to-people exchanges, Mao added.
Wang Qingyun in Beijing contributed to this story.
Xinhua