Spain becomes second EU country to impose Covid travel restrictions from China

China has been grappling with sharply rising Covid cases for weeks.

A masked traveller arrives at the international flight check in counter at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. Picture: AP Photo/Andy Wong

Spain has become the second European country to announce new Covid-19 restrictions on travellers from China.

The new measures come after the European Union's Health Security Committee met to discuss the bloc's common strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus amid a potential influx of visitors from China. 

Last week, China lifted most of its travel restrictions, allowing its citizens to freely leave the country for virtually the first time since March 2020.

The country has been grappling with sharply rising Covid cases for weeks.

Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias said this morning that arrivals into Spain from China will need need to produce a negative test result or be fully vaccinated.

Earlier this week, the Italian government said it would be requiring antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers entering from China.

In the wake of that announcement, the European Centres for Disease Control said that the introduction of mandatory Covid screenings of travellers from China was "unjustified".

But several other countries, including Japan, India, Taiwan, South Korea and the US have also announced their own measures on people travelling from the world's most populous country.

Several of the countries which have introduced the restrictions on travellers from China have cited concern over a potential new wave of infections and a lack of transparency from Beijing about potential new variants of the virus and its Covid-19 data.

However, Chinese state media has insisted the data the Chinese government publishes on Covid case totals and deaths has always been transparent, despite official figures being miniscule compared with other countries with smaller populations.