Óscar Zurriaga
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Valencia and outgoing president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE).
First of all, it is important to have reliable information on what the real situation is in China and in other neighbouring countries that may be more directly affected. And not only about incidence and death figures, but also about which variants are currently circulating in China. It is difficult to make a correct assessment in order to be able to take the most appropriate measures without reliable knowledge of the current situation.
On the other hand, international coordination of the measures to be taken must be implemented and is absolutely necessary at EU level.
Requesting a negative covid-19 test or the full vaccination schedule from travellers coming from China seems reasonable, but will probably not achieve the full effectiveness intended, although it may delay somewhat the potential impact of what is happening in China.
The test requested should be a PCR, and should be recent (maximum 48 hours before). As for the full vaccination schedule, this should be evidenced by an internationally recognised certificate, stating the dates and doses of the vaccination and the vaccine received.
The problem with this measure is that travellers who have departed from China may not arrive directly in Spain, but may have made one or more stopovers in other countries or airports, so passengers would have to be checked according to their initial origin and not according to the origin of the flight, something that is quite difficult and requires international coordination of measures, applied with the same criteria and the same rigour. We have the precedent of the closure of flights with South Africa in November-December 2021 to stop the entry of the Omicron variant, which was not as effective as intended.
If this measure is adopted, it will also be necessary to have a protocol for dealing with people who, regardless of their test and vaccination schedule, show symptoms on entry into the country (something that has already been applied in the past) and to prepare a system for testing at places of entry of travellers in case it is necessary in the event of this possible eventuality. And also to have rapid sequencing of viruses that could be isolated in these people.
In terms of protection and prevention, it should be stressed that, regardless of whether this or other measures are adopted, we must continue to insist on the importance of having the full vaccination schedule, including booster doses, and of following the measures recommended by the situation at all times: use of appropriate masks or avoiding direct contact with other people if they have symptoms or are in crowded or poorly ventilated places, avoiding close contact with vulnerable people without adequate protection, and adequately ventilating enclosed spaces.
It is also important to avoid the risk of stigmatising people based on their origin, something that already happened at the beginning of 2020: we are still in a pandemic and the impact is still global.