At Spanish airports, passengers arriving on flights from China will be required to have a negative COVID test or complete vaccination schedule, as confirmed this Friday by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias. Antigen tests will also be carried out again on these travelers at airports, according to the Hosteltur news portal.
The Minister of Health explained that "there is a shared concern at the European level about the evolution of infections in China and the difficulty of making a correct assessment due to the limited information available."
According to Darias, the abrupt interruption of the zero-COVID policy in China, "together with lower vaccination rates" in that country, have now led to "higher transmission rates" in the Asian giant.
"The main concern of international organizations lies in the possibility of new variants emerging in China that are not controlled until now," said the Minister of Health.
"A significant increase in passengers from China is expected from January 8"
In this context, the Chinese government has announced that from January 8, the current restrictions for travelers wishing to go abroad will no longer be in force, "so a significant increase in passengers from China worldwide is expected," notes the Minister of Health.
For this reason, and after the meeting of the European Commission this Thursday, the 27 agreed to prepare coordinated measures regarding the entry of passengers from China, which will include, for example, the requirement of the digital COVID certificate.
"But it is also important to act quickly, and therefore at the national level, we are going to implement controls at airports, requiring passengers from China to have a negative COVID test or complete vaccination schedule," said the Minister of Health.
The Ministry of Health is also already working on a resolution to request the COVID certificate from travelers from China and also "is preparing in coordination with Aena" to carry out antigen tests again on passengers from China.
In addition, the Ministry of Health will hold meetings with the autonomous communities, "especially Madrid and Catalonia, where direct flights from China arrive", to establish a protocol "in the event of possible arrivals of positive cases."
"The pandemic has left us with many lessons, we have learned them well. We have a robust surveillance strategy and a very powerful vaccination strategy," concluded the Minister.