China resumes international travel: Which countries are introducing new COVID restrictions?

Countries are imposing new COVID-19 measures on travellers coming from China as international travel resumes.

Japan, India, Malaysia and Taiwan have announced stepped up rules on travellers from China in response to rising cases. 

Japan says it will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travellers from China, with those testing positive having to undergo a week in quarantine. Tokyo also plans to limit airlines increasing flights to China.

Malaysia put in place additional tracking and surveillance measures. The Philippines is also considering imposing tests. 

US government officials are considering ramping up controls, too, citing concerns about the "lack of transparent data" coming from Beijing.

In the EU, Italy has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China, the health minister said on Wednesday.

The UK, however, has no plans to bring back COVID-19 testing for those coming into the country, a government spokesperson said on Thursday.

Over the past few weeks, China has rapidly been loosening its strict COVID rules amid citizen unrest. The abrupt policy change has reportedly left its health system overwhelmed as the virus spreads largely unchecked.

China, a country of 1.4 billion people, reported three new COVID-related deaths for Tuesday, up from one for Monday. However, these numbers are inconsistent with what funeral parlours are reporting, as well as with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.

"There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC [People's Republic of China]," US officials said