The chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wu Zunyou proposed that China and the US should work jointly to lift mutual travel restrictions in August or September when the US is expected to reach herd immunity, suggesting the two countries seek mutual recognition of vaccinations and give priority to official, business travel and overseas study.
Wu saying that the free travel plan between China and the US should proceed in three steps.
First, China and the US should mutually recognize vaccinations in the other country and limit free travel to only those who have been vaccinated.
Second, free travel should then be given to official and business travel and overseas study.
Third, all travel types should be covered.
China is the safest country in the world in terms of COVID-19 prevention, with no community transmission reported and the US is likely to vaccinate around 80 percent of its population by June and 90 percent by August, reaching herd immunity, Wu said on Monday at an online forum about US-China collaboration on COVID-19 prevention and treatment organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
"If that is the case and if we could remove all political barriers, just based on science, the two countries could possibly be the first two countries to lift travel restrictions with each other," Wu said.