Stop subjecting our citizens to Covid anal swabs, Japan asks China

Swabs: China's alternative PCR test has been causing psychological discomfort. Photo / Getty Images

Japan has voiced its discomfort over China's unorthodox Covid health tests for arriving passengers.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato has asked for Japanese citizens arriving in China to be exempt from anal swab tests due to severe "psychological pain" associated with it.

As of yesterday the Japanese government told Reuters it had not received an official response from Beijing.

"Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they received anal swab tests, which caused a great psychological pain," secretary Kato told a press conference.

The secretary did not reveal how many Japanese citizens had been subjected to the 'anal swab' tests. In January China announced that it would be administering the new tests for arrivals to tighten up Covid defences and make sure no infections were missed. State broadcaster CCTV announced that visitors arriving at some cities would be required to comply with the new "science-based" tests.

It is not just visitors from across the Sea of Japan which have been taken by surprise by the new screening requirements.

Last Friday, the US State Department asked China to stop subjecting diplomatic personnel to the tests.

US diplomats have complained that they should not have to undergo the swab tests, as it undermines their diplomatic rights.

To collect the nucleic acid samples, the swab needs to be inserted about three to five centimetres and rotated several times. Photo / Supplied

A spokesperson from the US State Department told Associated Press, that the tests undermined China's duty towards the American civil servants in "preserving their dignity, consistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as other relevant diplomatic law provisions."

The Chinese Foreign ministry denied subjecting American visitors to the tests saying: "China has never asked US diplomats in China to go through anal swab tests."

China has opted to use faecal samples at screening because viral load is more easily detectable than in saliva, Li Tongzeng a respiratory diseases expert told the state broadcaster.