Almost half of passengers travelling from China to Milan have COVID-19, Italian officials says

Italian health officials have sounded the alarm about travel from China after almost half of the total passengers on two flights to Milan tested positive for COVID-19.

The country will, accordingly, start testing arriving passengers from China and begin looking for potentially new variants, The Hill reported. Roughly 38% of passengers on one flight tested positive while 52% on a second plane did so. 

China is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases since speedily walking back many of its more stringent lockdown regulations after mass protests erupted demanding an end to Beijing's Zero-COVID policy.

The protests spawned after ten people perished in an apartment fire last month, with demonstrators contending that the nation's strict COVID-19 measures impeded a timely response from emergency relief personnel.

The findings from Italy come as other nations, such as India and Japan, have reimposed testing restrictions on travelers from China. The United States on Wednesday announced that it would reinstate a requirement that passengers from China show a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding their flight.