In an effort to coordinate a reaction to China’s decision to suspend its COVID-19 restrictions despite an outbreak of diseases there, European Union health officials are conducting talks. Italy has demanded tests upon arrival for all travelers arriving by air from the country.
The size of the outbreak in China and skepticism over official data have pushed nations like the United States, India, Taiwan, and Japan to put fresh travel restrictions on Chinese tourists. The EU Health Security Committee will debate these issues on Thursday.
Only Italy has taken this action within the EU; the other member states of the virtually borderless union either claimed they did not see the need to do so or were awaiting a consensus among the 27 members.
When the committee’s meeting would end and what decisions the group, which is made up of representatives from health ministries throughout the Union and is presided over by the European Commission, were both unknown.
“The EU Health Security Committee is meeting … to discuss the COVID-19 situation in China and possible measures to be taken in a coordinated way,” the European Commission’s health directorate general said on Twitter.
Any decision taken by the committee, which met frequently at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe to coordinate policies, would only be advisory. But its aim is for member states to agree to a common line and apply it across the bloc.
Source: Aljazeera news
