Australia will impose mandatory COVID-19 testing for travellers arriving from China after a spike in cases in the key tourism and business market.

Health Minister Mark Butler said that from January 5 travellers would have to take a COVID test within the 48 hours before travel and show evidence of a negative result before travelling to Australia.

He cited the “lack of comprehensive information” from Beijing to the international community about the coronavirus outbreak gripping the nation of 1.4 billion people.

“The decision to implement these temporary measures has been made out of an abundance of caution, taking into account the dynamic and evolving situation in China and the potential for new variants to emerge in an environment of high transmission,” Mr Butler said on Sunday.

“Australia is well positioned in its pandemic response. We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation in Australia and internationally, in collaboration with medical experts.

“Our absolute priority is keeping our community safe and continuing to be a world leader when it comes to responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

Tweet from @healthgovau

British research firm Airfinity estimates China’s COVID cases could reach 3.7 million a day in a looming January peak and 4.2 million a day in March.

“Today, our model suggests that there is likely to be over one million cases a day in China and over 5000 deaths a day,” the company said in late December.

“This is in stark contrast to the official data, which is reporting 1800 cases and only seven official deaths over the past week.”

Mr Butler said advice from chief health officer Professor Paul Kelly was that the dominant strain in China’s rampaging outbreak was Omicron subvariant BF. 7 – which has been in Australia for months.

He said there was “broad consensus” among Australia’s chief health officers that there is no “immediate public health threat”.

“I want it stressed Australia is well positioned against the fight with COVID,” he said.

China’s coronavirus cases have skyrocketed after it largely abandoned strict control measures, with hospitals and funeral homes reportedly under immense pressure.

The spiralling outbreak has also spurred fears of new variants, leading many nations to impose testing requirements on arrivals from China.

The United States, Britain, India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan are among other nations that have already imposed mandatory tests.

Italian health authorities reported last week that on one flight from China to Milan, 38 per cent of passengers tested positive.

On a second, 52 per cent of arriving passengers were confirmed with the virus.

Australia’s requirements will apply to travellers from Hong Kong and Macau, in addition to those from mainland China.

Some international health experts believe that China’s COVID outbreak is likely infecting millions of people a day.

Last week, University of Adelaide epidemiologist Associate Professor Emma Miller said China’s surge in COVID cases was inevitable.

She told TND the country’s situation appeared scarier and accelerated because of the abrupt changes in policies, which had allowed the virus to run rampant.

“From a population with only partial immunity, like China that has suddenly opened the borders, it’s not that we shouldn’t be alarmed. It is just that we should be taking appropriate measures everywhere,” she said.

She said she did saw nothing wrong with asking people to take COVID tests before they flew, or checking symptoms.

“Once you have people moving in and out and around, which we have been, it doesn’t really make any sense to target one particular population,” she said.

-with AAP