Covid in China: Checks on visitors under review - defence minister
China is starting to open up travel in and out of the country for the first time since March 2020The UK government is reviewing whether to introduce Covid restrictions on visitors from China, the defence secretary has said.
This follows a surge in cases in China after Beijing's decision to effectively end its zero-Covid policy. "That is a sensible thing to do and something the British government should be seriously looking at." However, he cast doubt on the policy of pre-flight testing, as the Americans are doing. This is designed to slow the spread of the virus, but Lord Bethell said trying to contain coronavirus was "like trying to stop the sea".
Vaccines are saving lives but they can't stop infections. Instead, experts are tracking the virus and seeing if the vaccines need updating to be a better match for any significant new mutations. So far, science is keeping up with the virus and there are no particularly worrying new variants. While China was in a "dark" and "difficult" place, the current evidence suggested the particular variant causing most infections in the country was "very common elsewhere in the world", he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme on Wednesday. The UK has seen many such cases since it appeared in the summer, he added.
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