The Australian Government has announced pre-departure testing for COVID-19 for people travelling to Australia from the People’s Republic of China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. This sees Australia now joining other countries across the world including the France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Spain, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States of America in implementing similar measures.
From 12:01am on Thursday 5 January 2023, travellers will be required to undertake a COVID-19 test within the 48 hours prior to travel and show evidence of a negative test result when travelling to Australia. This will apply to all travellers to Australia from China, including international students. While we are no longer in the emergency phase of the pandemic response in Australia, this decision has been made to safeguard Australia from the risk of potential new emerging variants, and in recognition of the rapidly evolving situation in China.
For more information, visit australia.gov.au.