TheCable

About 50 percent of passengers on two flights arriving Milan, Italy from China have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Bloomberg, most of those who tested positive weren’t showing symptoms.

There is also said to be growing concern among Italian health officials about new COVID variants emerging from China with sequencing already being done on the Milan tests.

In a statement on Wednesday, Orazio Schillaci, Italian health minister, said COVID tests are now mandatory for all travellers coming from China and transiting through Italy.

“I have arranged, by ordinance, mandatory COVID-19 antigenic swabs, and related sequencing of the virus, for all passengers coming from China and in transit through Italy,” the statement reads.

“The measure is essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population.”

China has seen a surge in virus cases since the government dropped its strict zero-COVID policies.

Despite concerns as a result of the increasing cases, China said on Tuesday that it would scrap quarantine for in-bound travellers from January 8.

Meanwhile, countries including the United States, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia, have also imposed mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China.

The US said on Wednesday that it will begin to require airline passengers traveling from China to test negative for COVID before entering the country.

All passengers two years of age and older originating from China, Hong Kong, or Macau will be mandated to get tested no more than two days before their flight to the US and show a negative result to the airline upon departure.