Toronto: Health experts said that the negative Covid-19 test of travelers coming from China will not help in preventing the spread of new variants of the virus.
Kerry Bowman, assistant professor at the the University of Toronto’s Minority Faculty of Medicine, said the move was not based on science, but a political move.
On Saturday, the federal government had said that travelers coming from China, Hong Kong and Macao will be required to have a negative covid-19 test before leaving for Canada.
It also said that this rule will come into effect from January 5 and it will be mandatory for all travellers coming from these three countries aged two years and above to get this test done.
Bowman, who teaches Bioethics and global health, said there was no information about which variant of Omicron is circulating in China at the moment.
During this time, Associate Professor of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, “It is not clear what the goals of such a policy are, but such parameters do not help.”
He said that if China adopts a transparent approach to its COVID-19 data, variants, vaccines and its spread, it can help.
Colin Furness, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, said that this situation is complicated with regard to travel rules. It is a matter related to political, social and public health. This move will be considered political and racial. These things do not prove to be helpful in any way.