Washington DC - The US is introducing restrictions on travelers coming from China due to a surge in coronavirus cases there.

Infections have spread fast since Beijing relaxed its Covid-19 restrictions in the wake of mass protests.

The Centers for Disease Control announced that from January 5, air travelers arriving from China would have to provide a negative coronavirus test before departure.

This applies regardless of nationality or vaccination status, and the test must not be older than two days. The same goes for those traveling from the Chinese special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

This new requirement is also valid for people arriving from China via a third country, and those who are just transiting through the US.

Insufficient data on the infections had been provided by the Chinese side, health authorities said.

In the first three weeks of December alone, it is estimated that 248 million people in China caught Covid-19. Scientists have warned that the infection wave could spawn new variants that would then find their way to other countries.

After almost three years of strict precautions, China's leadership abruptly announced an end to its zero-Covid policy on December 7, after weeks of protests.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, China's strategy had been to contain the virus as best it could and to fight even the smallest outbreaks with lockdowns, mass testing and forced quarantines.

Now hundreds of millions of Chinese are coming into contact with the virus for the first time.