There is also concern that a new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus could emerge in China and proliferate via travellers from the country.
With the recent Kraken subvariant, for example, some estimates put the efficacy of mRNA vaccines at about 30 per cent.
But are travel restrictions the answer?
“If there was a new strain emerging in one part of the world, travel measures won’t stop that strain from getting to other parts of the world,” Cowling said. “I don’t think travel measures really have many rationales.”
Nevertheless, countries like the United States, South Korea, Canada, Britain and Australia are still enforcing rules for travellers from China, such as pre-arrival COVID-19 tests. All visitors to China, too, must produce a negative pre-departure test result.
Morocco, however, went so far as to ban all arrivals from China.
“For the rest of the world, it’s a matter of sort of striking their own balance,” Liow said.
“How to gradually open the door to Chinese tourists, Chinese business visitors … is going to be one of the definitive issues of this year.”