Passengers from China set to need a negative Covid test before entering the UK amid surging cases 

Passengers arriving to the UK from China will need a negative Covid test before they travel following surging cases of the virus in the country. 

It is understood that the Government will make the announcement about the need for pre-departure Covid tests later.

The move will bring the UK in line with other countries around the world, such as Israel, Spain and Italy, who have announced they would impose Covid tests for travellers from China.

This evening, the French Government has also announced all passengers arriving from China will need to provide a negative Covid test taken 48 hours before travelling. 

The UK Government was resisting calls to introduce testing but is now making new arrangements. 

Sources say the move is precautionary and has been prompted over concerns over China's transparency with the vaccine and data.

Ministers had said the situation was being kept under review as Beijing announced plans to start reissuing passports and visas for overseas trips.  

Some Tory MPs had called for a more robust response from the Government, even as the chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Professor Andrew Pollard, said the imposition of travel restrictions was unlikely to stop variants reaching the UK. 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 earlier today Mr Pollard said: 'Trying to ban a virus by adjusting what we do with travel has already been shown not to work very well.

'We have seen that with the bans on travel from various countries during the pandemic.'

Among the Tory backbenchers who had called for the move was Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Defence Select Committee.

He told LBC: 'Any dithering leaves us as a hostage to fortune … The later you leave any action, the less impact it will have. Let's get testing in place.'

No 10 had previously sought to downplay the idea that negative tests could be required, saying earlier there were 'no plans to introduce any new Covid-19 testing for arrivals'.

Reports from The Times and The Telegraph said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the discussion to introduce testing once again. 

While no official announcement has been made as of yet, on Friday defence secretary Ben Wallace said the Government was reviewing the need for testing passengers.

He said: 'The government is looking at that, it's under review, we noticed obviously what the US has done and India and I think Italy has looked at it.'

Italy was among the first to impose the new travel rule after 50 per cent of passengers on two flights into Milan from China tested positive for Covid, prompting the Italian government to bring mandatory testing back.

Of 62 passengers on the first flight subjected to testing, 35 came back positive, while 62 out of 120 tested positive from the second fight.

It comes amid fears that Beijing has under-reported its cases and withheld virus samples, reducing the likelihood of any new variant being spotted or reported.

Scientists across the globe are urging the hardline state to share more genetic sequences to check for possible signs of a new variant, warning that a new mutation could result in a more aggressive virus that existing vaccines might be less efficient against protecting.

Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Daniel Lopez-Acuna said he believed Western countries should insist on negative PCR test results before accepting travellers from China, to reduce the risk of transmission.

Even countries with high rates of immunisation could be at risk, he said, as existing vaccines might be less powerful against a potential new variant.

He told the BBC World Service: 'The risk of the high transmission in China is the emergence of a new variant that could escape through the vaccine efficacy and could be more aggressive and more virulent.'

China has reportedly shared fewer than 1,000 Covid virus samples with the international scientific community over the past month, despite a rapid rise in cases after it eased lockdown measures.

However, officials estimated 250 million people are likely to have contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to leaked notes. 

Last week, a hospital in Shanghai predicted that there will 5.43 million people with the virus in the country's largest city by the end of next week.

Shanghai has a population of 25 million residents. 

On January 8, China will bring to the end its own restrictions for passengers, which have been in place for nearly three years.

It's Zero-Covid policy will come to an end with the country saying it will fully reopen its borders for the first time since March 2020. 

This means international travellers will not have to quarantine upon entering the country. 

Since the pandemic began, China's official death count stands at 5,241 - much smaller than the deaths caused by Covid in other countries.

Plans to impose mandatory tests for travellers from China entering the UK come at the same time as France announcing it will update its policy. 

France did not set a start date for the measures but will publish a government decree and notify European Union member states, the ministries said, with a Government source telling Reuters it would take a 'little while' for the mandatory testing to be implemented.

From Jan 1, France will also carry out random PCR COVID tests upon arrival on some travellers coming from China, a government official told reporters.

The government also recommended that people with weak immune systems delay non-essential travel to China.