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Washington may impose new restrictions on travellers going to the U.S. from China, Reuters reported on Dec. 28.

This is due to concerns over a lack of "transparent data" from Beijing, according to unnamed U.S. officials cited by Reuters.

"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," the officials told Reuters.

China stopped daily Covid data publication

On Dec. 25, China's National Health Commission released a short statement, announcing that it would no longer publish daily Covid-19 data, like the number of infections or deaths from Covid.

"From now on, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release relevant Covid information for reference and research," it said. The Commission did not explain why it had stopped releasing the daily data.

On Dec. 22, China also announced that it would only count people who have died from respiratory failure or pneumonia caused by the virus as Covid-related deaths. Previously, Covid-infected people who died of illness were added to the death toll.

In the four days leading up to the decision to end daily data publication, China reported zero Covid-related deaths, NPR said.

This is despite a reported surge in Covid cases in the country from Chinese sources, with the provincial government of Zhejiang stating on Dec. 25 that it has seen about 1 million new infections daily, with that number expected to double in a matter of days.

China scraps quarantine requirements for inbound travellers

On Dec. 27, China also announced that it would scrap quarantine requirements for travellers into China.

Previously, visitors had to have five days of centralised quarantine, followed by three days of home monitoring.

Under the new measures slated for Jan. 8, 2023, they would only need to present a negative PCR test within 48 hours before departure.

This has led to anticipation of an upswing in travel out of China from residents there, as their requirements for returning would be less onerous.

While India and Japan have imposed additional restrictions for travellers from China, there are currently no such additional restrictions for Singapore.

Local infectious diseases experts said there is no need for such measures for now, although they did mention the possibility of a new variant emerging.

Top image from Getty.