Chinese embassy in US tightens COVID-19 testing rules

The Chinese Embassy in the United States has further tightened rules for COVID-19 nucleic acid and serum testing as imported cases from the country soar.

The detection of serum-specific IgM antibodies must be done by professional medical staff through venous blood sampling, and the test report must clearly show terms such as serum, IgM, venous. Also fingertip blood testing is no longer accepted, starting from December 23, Pacific Time, according to a notice on the embassy’s website posted on December 19.

The report must also indicate the specific detection methods, including colloidal gold, chemiluminescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. If it is a detection method other than the above, the specific methodology must be indicated.

The nucleic acid test report must clearly show not only terms like nucleic acid (NAAT), rt-PCR, but also specific sampling methods, including pharyngeal swab, nasopharyngeal swab. Other methods must be specified.

Passengers going to China must go to the departure places of the direct flights between China and the US — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Detroit, Dallas — for nucleic acid and antibody sampling, and send them to laboratories authorized by the Chinese embassy and consulates for testing.

The embassy urged people to avoid unessential, non-urgent travel to minimized the risks of infection.