COVID-19 testing requirements for passengers traveling from China highlight mounting concerns about the potential for undetected new strains of the virus spawned by the country’s burgeoning outbreak.
When the U.S. imposed requirements for travelers from China to show negative test results, it also expanded a program that collects voluntary samples from international passengers at airports to help monitor variants entering the country. On Friday, the U.K. and France joined the rush of countries testing passengers and sequencing samples from people arriving from China in an effort to identify any dangerous new mutations that could spread rapidly through their populations. On Friday, Japan also began to mandate that travelers from China produce a negative test results.
The scenario echoes the pandemic’s early days, when China was criticized for not releasing key genetic data on the virus until weeks after news of the new illness became public. The country’s health officials have said that sentinel hospitals are monitoring mutations in samples taken from patients in emergency rooms and outpatient clinics. However, most of that data has not yet been shared internationally, health experts say.
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