Labor flags wastewater tests on inbound planes as mandatory Covid checks for China arrivals resumes

Health minister defends country-specific testing as necessary due to ‘absence of comprehensive information’ on Covid’s spread in China

Australia is planning to introduce wastewater testing for incoming flights in an attempt to gather more information about the possible entry of new Covid variants.

The health minister, Mark Butler, announced the measure on Monday in a round of interviews defending the decision to reimpose pre-flight Covid testing for passengers from China as necessary because of a “absence of comprehensive information” about the disease in China.

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