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Mark Butler defends Covid testing of travellers from China

The health minister, Mark Butler, is out defending the Australian government’s decision to impose pre-flight Covid tests on travellers from China.

Butler told Channel Seven’s Sunrise:

Well, really, the key driver of this decision is what the World Health Organization has described as an absence of comprehensive information about, what is a very fast moving situation in China.

The decision that I announced yesterday, which takes effect on Thursday, also reflects decisions that have been taken across the world by countries in north America in Europe and across Asia. In Asia, for example, by Japan, by India, South Korea, Malaysia and others. So this we think is a balanced decision, a modest decision, but it will start to ensure that we have better information about what is happening in China right now.

Butler rejected the suggestion Australia thinks China is lying about its Covid wave, but cited a “a lack of genomic sequencing of cases … that are obviously happening in China and what is a very significant Covid wave”, warning this could make it harder to identify new variants.

Butler said Australia “warmly welcomes” reopening of travel from China, which started three weeks ago.

He said:

I know that hundreds of thousands of Australians of Chinese descent in particular are really looking forward to the opportunity, to be able to reunite with family, and with friends, whom they’ve not seen other than on a screen for months, if not years.

And I know also the tourism industry, the education sector [universities] are really looking forward to that resumption of travel. It’s really been the one significant country in the world that we haven’t been able to see travel resume. So this is a very positive development, but we just need to ensure that we’ve got the information that we need to protect the health of Australians.