All travellers from China are subjected to the new policy, including citizens and residents.
All travellers coming from China to Qatar are now required to present a negative pre-travel PCR test as of Tuesday, Doha’s state news agency (QNA) reported on Monday.
Travellers must take the test within 48 hours of their departure to Doha regardless of their immunity status and vaccine record under the new entry policy.
The move comes as China faces a new and alarming wave after scrapping its ‘Zero Covid’ approach.
QNA noted that the updated policy is a temporary preventative measure to protect both travellers and the community in Qatar from the virus.
China’s recent decision to end to the ‘zero Covid’ approach to the virus has led to a mass spread of Covid-19 across the country, potentially infecting millions every day, according to some international health experts.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), China recorded 28,493 Covid cases in the last 24 hours alone.
As a result, European countries including France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, along with the United States, South Korea, and Australia imposed Covid testing requirements on travellers from China this week.
On Saturday, the International Airports Council’s European branch said the Covid checks imposed by several European countries on passengers arriving from China are “scientifically unjustified” and “uncoordinated.
“These unilateral actions are at odds with all the experience and evidence gained over the past three years… imposing other restrictions for travellers from this country is neither scientifically justified nor risk based,” ACI Europe said in a statement.
The federation, which represents over 500 airports in 55 European countries, was highly critical of the “chaotic” health restrictions imposed in various countries during the pandemic’s peak.
“We are once again plunging back into a patchwork of unjustified and uncoordinated travel restrictions, which have no basis in scientific fact… These travel restrictions do not work and current arrangements for EU coordination have failed once again,” said Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s director general.
