On 5 January 2023, the Australian Government introduced mandatory Covid-19 testing for all incoming travelers from China, including Hong Kong and Makau. The Federal Department of Health and Ageing issued a passenger information sheet here. Within 48h of one’s scheduled departure to Australia, persons arriving from those destinations need to show evidence of a negative Covid-19 test before boarding. As the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac (or Cat, in the Vietnamese zodiac for 2023) is fast approaching, it is likely that the latest restrictive move will make it much harder to reach any pre-pandemic levels of Chinese tourists travelling here for work, leisure or study.
Epidemiologists: a political move “against public health interest”
Australia’s leading epidemiologists have warned that the Australian Government’s move is more political than in the interest of public health.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly advised the federal authorities against mandatory testing, commenting:
“I think the biggest issue in China that we need to watch his is the emergence of other variants and at this stage, that hasn’t happened. The information we have out of China, at least at the moment is the variant that’s circulating mostly and driving the rising cases in China is a variant we’ve already seen in Australia.
…They have relatively low rates of vaccination, particularly an elderly people and so there will be millions and millions of cases in China. I feel for the Chinese people right now and what they’re facing and medical colleagues and so forth who will be needing to deal with that.
…We’ve got lots of surveillance systems that are continuing to work and continue into assist us in monitoring the pandemic like we do with flu and various other infectious diseases.
…We made a decision, the Australian Government and all of the state and territory governments, made a decision ay National Cabinet to open up Australia and to live with COVID and that was made more than a year ago now. …there has to be a balance there about how we live with this virus and as you said, treating it like other infectious diseases.”
Health Minister defending the testing requirement
Minister for Health, Mark Butler, has defended the government’s position on the mandatory testing. He also confirmed that international health authorities are attempting to pressure China to be more transparent about sharing its Covid 19 data with other countries.
It currently appears that Australia will not be among the top countries where Chinese tourists will head out to, with many still choosing to travel domestically, if at all.