WASHINGTON - Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Dec 1 asked President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese respiratory illness cases.

“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” said the letter, signed by Mr Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The rise in cases became a global issue last week when the World Health Organisation asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.

A Biden administration official said the United States was closely monitoring the uptick in respiratory illnesses in China, but added: “We are seeing seasonal trends. Nothing is appearing out of the ordinary.... At this time, there is no indication that there is a link between the people who are seeking care in US emergency departments and the outbreak of respiratory illness in China.”

The spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Mr Liu Pengyu, said in response to the Rubio letter: “The relevant claims are purely ill-intentioned fabrications. China firmly opposes them.”

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said earlier this week the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that they had avoided during two years of Covid-19 restrictions.

In recent months, the US and China have been steadily increasing flights between the countries, that are still far below 2019 levels. The number rose on Nov 9 to 35 a week for each country, up from 12 a week in August.

In January 2020, then president Donald Trump barred most non-US citizens who had been in China in the prior two weeks from coming to the US over concerns about Covid-19. However, he did not restrict or limit flights between the two countries.

The US lifted the unprecedented travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors starting in November 2021, including from China. The US rescinded a separate requirement that air travellers test negative before arriving in June 2022.

The US in January started requiring air passengers to get negative Covid-19 tests after Beijing’s decision to lift its stringent zero-Covid policies and lifted the requirements in March. REUTERS