European Union-wide restrictions on travellers from China could be re-introduced after Italy announced mandatory testing for those arriving in, or transiting through, the country.
Officials in Italy, the earliest and one of the hardest-hit countries three years ago at the start of the first Covid wave, said it was "essential to ensure the the surveillance and identification of new variants" and protect the population.
Officials in Milan have started testing passengers off flights from China; on one St Stephen's Day flight 52 per cent of passengers tested positive for Covid, local media reported.
China, which has maintained some of the tightest internal restrictions in the world, has quickly announced these are being lifted, including the discouraging of foreign travel and the issuing of new passports.
Ahead of the issuing of new passports from January 8th and allowing agents to start selling foreign trips, there has been a large increase in interest on flying abroad.
Reports out of the country have suggested the easing of the restrictions has already led to a surge in cases. Part of the problem is the relatively low vaccination rate in the country and that they solely using the country's own produced vaccine.
An EU Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the BBC that, following the removal of travel restrictions earlier this year, there was agreement among members they could be re-introduced in a coordinated way.
There is concern the BF7 omicron variant, which is prevalent in China, is present in Europe but is not the dominant strain.
Several other countries have announced measures aimed at screening those coming from China, including Japan, Taiwan, India and Malaysia.
US officials said the federal government is considering new restrictions travelling, largely due to the lack of transparency surrounding the the numbers with the virus and the lack of genomic sequencing to identify the variants circulating.
It is unknown what exactly is happening within China as officials have stopped releasing data. Last week, the country reported approximately infections a day and several deaths.
The UK said it was monitoring the situation closely but is not currently considering new restrictions. A Downing Street spokesperson said the number of cases in Britain was still "relatively low".
Wang Wenbin, China's foreign minister spokesperson, accused Western countries and media of "hyping up" and "distorting China's Covid policy adjustments".
He said China believed all countries' Covid responses should be "science-based and proportionate", and should "not affect normal people-to-people exchange".
Mr Wang called for "joint efforts to ensure safe cross-border travel, maintain stability of global industrial supply chains and promote economic recovery and growth".
