No longer will air passengers traveling from China to the US be required to undergo COVID-19 testing and provide a negative result. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, lifted the requirement for COVID-19 tests for Chinese travellers on Friday.
Since January 5, 2018, the US has made the pre-departure COVID test mandatory to all travellers departing from China. This is due to the sudden increase in cases of coronavirus in China during December 2018.
Xinhua reported that the decision came into effect Friday evening and passengers departing from China mainland, Hong Kong or Macau for the US no longer had to submit COVID negative tests before departure.
Global COVID-19 Update: US records the highest number of new cases
WHO reports that between February 6 and March 5, 2023, there were nearly 4,5 million new cases of COVID-19 worldwide. There were also 32,000 deaths associated with the disease. According to WHO, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths has decreased by 65 percent and 58 percent respectively compared with the previous 28-day period.
In its weekly COVID-19 epidemiological update released on 8 March, the organization reported that as of 5 March 2023 there were more than 759 millions confirmed COVID-19 deaths and over 6,8 million COVID related cases worldwide.
The United States of America reported the most new cases (1 027 596), followed by Japan (539 251), China (454 755), Germany (379 505), and Russian Federation (345 384).
United States of America reported the highest number of new deaths (10 856). Japan (3432), China (2634), the United Kingdom (203) and Brazil (1931) were next.
Omicron is a variant to be concerned about: XBB.1.5 is the most common
WHO currently keeps track of one SARS-CoV-2 variant (VOC), Omicron, and seven Omicron Subvariants including BA.1,BA.2,BA.3,BA.4,BA.5, andXBB.1.5.
WHO reported that almost all SARS-CoV-2 sequencing shared via GISAID between 6 February and 6 March 2023 (28 day period) were Omicron VOCs.
The report also noted an increase in the proportion of recombinant linesages worldwide. XBB.1.5 has been identified as the predominant variant. WHO stated that the available data does not indicate XBB.1.5 as having a greater clinical severity than other Omicron descendent lines.
