Australian health minister suggests pre-flight China tests designed to make Beijing share more data on Covid outbreak

Australia’s health minister says he wants pre-flight Covid testing for travellers from China to be “temporary”, suggesting the requirement could be lifted if Beijing shares more information about its outbreak.

Mark Butler suggested on Thursday – the first day of the new testing regime – that the measure was put in place as part of an international push for China to provide real-time data on the genomic sequencing of Covid cases.

The Australian government’s response drew criticism from the Coalition opposition for departing from health advice, while China’s warning of reciprocal “countermeasures” has raised concerns the stoush could hinder the thawing of diplomatic relations.

Butler said the requirement for a PCR test or supervised rapid antigen test was “modest” and as resumption of flights on Thursday demonstrated “they are not proving to be a barrier” to people travelling between China and Australia.

“We want these measures to be temporary,” he said.

“What it will do is provide us with a high level of confidence about the transmission of Covid from that country to this.

“I’ve asked my department to reach out to their equivalents in China, to stress our view that it would be valuable for information to be shared more comprehensively by China not just with Australia but with the rest of the world.

“Real-time uploading of their genomic sequencing of Covid cases – this is what governments, including Australia, are calling for. This is why we’ve put in place these modest, sensible measures out of an abundance of caution.”

Butler noted that “to travel to China you need to show a pre-departure PCR test as well”.

Butler defended the decision to impose a requirement for a negative test within 48 hours of departure against the advice of the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, by noting he had “accepted every positive recommendation contained in the advice” for greater surveillance, including wastewater testing.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has criticised the decision to ignore Kelly’s health advice and demanded the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, front the press to explain the response.

Earlier on Thursday, the shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, accused the Albanese government of “very perplexing and hamfisted” attempts to explain the policy.

Birmingham told 4BC Radio that “a week or so ago they were saying very clearly that these sorts of measures were not necessary, that the Covid outbreak in China was analogous to any other Covid outbreak.”

“They argued it was out of an abundance of caution, but of course the medical officer himself formed his advice with a cautious lens and approach,” Birmingham said.

“Then they said it was to get more data, but they can’t demonstrate where they’re going to get this data from because the tests will be undertaken in China.”

Butler said if he had ignored the chief medical officer’s other recommendations “there would have been a valid criticism” but he had accepted Kelly’s four positive suggestions and “in addition” had imposed pre-flight testing.

He said that requirement had been imposed by “every government to which we would usually compare ourselves” and was accepted as “understandable” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO has criticised China’s “very narrow” definition of Covid-19 deaths, warning that official statistics are not showing the true impact of the wave as hospitals and crematoriums are quickly overwhelmed following the easing of China’s internal control measures.