Beijing bars arrivals from UK, Belgium

China has imposed fresh travel bans on non-Chinese arrivals from Britain and Belgium, as it guards against a resurgence of the coronavirus by refusing entry to people from two of Europe’s worst-hit nations.

Covid-19 first emerged in central China late last year, but Beijing has largely brought its own outbreak under control through tight travel restrictions and stringent health measures for anyone entering the country.

In March, as the virus ripped across the world, China shut its borders to all foreign nationals.

It gradually eased those restrictions to allow those stranded overseas to return with special permission from its embassies, negative Covid-19 tests and a two-week quarantine on arrival.

But in a sharp reversal as the outbreak once more billows out across Europe, the Chinese embassy in the UK said Beijing had “decided to temporarily suspend entry into China by non-Chinese nationals”.

“The suspension is a temporary response necessitated by the current situation of Covid-19,” it said Wednesday.

The Chinese embassy website in Belgium announced a similar ban on travellers as a “last resort in response to the current pandemic”.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.