Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 cases and the removal of most restrictions, the European Commission has suggested testing travelers from China before they leave the country and stepping up wastewater surveillance on aircraft as potential measures to control the entry of people from the Asian nation into the European Union (EU).

According to a Commission official, at this Tuesday’s Health Security Committee (CSS) meeting, all Member States decided to take a coordinated approach to the “changing” COVID-19 situation in China and the ramifications of passengers from the enormous Asian continent arriving in Europe.

While a new discussion will take place this Wednesday at the meeting of the Integrated Political Response mechanism to Crises (IPCR), which has been called by the Swedish Council Presidency, Brussels has prepared a draft opinion to serve as a framework for the discussion that will now be reviewed and adopted based on the contributions of the Member States at the meeting.

Therefore, it will be up to the Member States to discuss the draft opinion of the Health Security Committee, which suggests measures on traveler personal hygiene and health (including the advice to wear a mask on flights from China), control of aircraft wastewater, genomic surveillance at airports and greater control and sequencing, greater EU surveillance in terms of testing and vaccination, or performing prior tests on passengers from China.

The same Commission representative claims that the “great majority” of EU nations support testing travelers before they leave the country. However, in order to ensure the success of all measures, they must be coordinated and targeted at the “most suitable” airports and flights.