From today, China no longer requires incoming international travellers to have a negative COVID test to enter the country.
It’s part of a dramatic de-escalation of restrictions in the world’s most populous country, which maintained a strict “COVID zero” policy until December last year, using strict lockdowns and a closed border to try to curb outbreaks.
The move will benefit China’s large incentive groups, who will no longer have to take a COVID test in order to return home. New Zealand will be hosting almost 10,000 incentive delegates from Amway China later this year.
Closer to home, the government of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, has ended COVID protocols for cruise ships, including mandatory vaccinations, pre-departure COVID tests and enforced mask wearing.
The changes follow new advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee which said that due to the shift in managing COVID to bring it more in line with other communicable diseases, the committee “considers there is no longer a need for COVID-19 specific recommendations and guidance to apply to the cruise industry”. However, the AHPPC did note that cruise ships did “remain a higher risk setting for communicable disease”.
“The 2023 winter cruise season in Sydney is on track to be one of the strongest on record and it is fantastic even more people can now participate,” said the NSW tourism minister John Graham.
“These protocols were important after COVID but were not intended to continue in perpetuity and I thank the sector for how they have handled the additional requirements placed upon them.”
