US to Require Testing for Inbound Chinese Travelers

Image: Doctor testing patient for COVID-19. (photo via Morsa Images / E+)
Image: Doctor testing patient for COVID-19. (photo via Morsa Images / E+)
Lacey Pfalz
by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:35 AM ET, Thu December 29, 2022

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will require inbound air travelers from China to present a negative COVID-19 testing result or proof of recent recovery from the virus beginning on January 5, 2023, three days prior to when Chinese travelers will be able to travel internationally again without pandemic restrictions by their own government.

The travelers impacted by this ruling are travelers at a minimum of two years of age from China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Tests must be conducted within two days of departure, while proof of recovery should be within 90 days of traveling.

The rule comes, as the U.S. State Department explains, "due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the PRC and the risk of the emergence of a new viral variant given the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from the PRC."

The State Department considers China a Level 3 risk, urging travelers from the U.S. to reconsider travel due to the challenging zero-COVID policies which are currently in place for travelers and residents alike.


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Lacey Pfalz

Lacey Pfalz

Associate Editor

Lacey Pfalz is Associate Editor at TravelPulse. She's a passionate advocate of responsible travel and believes the best travel experiences happen outside of a planned itinerary. Lacey currently lives in rural Wisconsin. She can be reached at [email protected].

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