Health Minister Mark Butler says Australia welcomes renewed travel with China despite slapping new entry requirements on people arriving from the mainland. 

Travellers will have to return a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of departure from Thursday as cases spike after Beijing dismantled restrictions. 

Mr Butler said he welcomed China opening its borders and allowing citizens to travel once again, with a spike in travellers expected in Australia. 

He said it was “a very modest, balanced decision”.

“I know that hundreds of thousands of Australians of Chinese descent, in particular, are particularly looking forward to the opportunity to reunite with family and friends,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program. 

“So this is a very positive development, but we need to ensure that we have the information we need to protect the health of Australians.”

UK-based health data firm Airfinity estimates deaths will peak towards the end of January at 25,000 a day and daily cases will peak at 3.7 million in the next fortnight. 

The World Health Organization has expressed concern about the transparency of data coming from Beijing, making it harder to get an accurate handle on case numbers and deaths. 

Mr Butler said while there was no evidence of new variants emerging from China, the decision was taken out of an abundance of caution and to gather more data.

“There’s no imminent public health threat and we’re very well positioned right now in the fight against COVID here in Australia,” he told ABC radio. 

The health minister said the main driver of China’s COVID spike was an Omicron variant that’s been circulating in Australia for several months.

But he said Australia needed to be able to quickly identify the emergence of new variants through measures including wastewater testing from planes. 

The Business Council of Australia has warned against a “retreat” on freedoms and the move to living with the virus. 

Mr Butler said he didn’t agree with the assertion.

“I’m very confident that is not going to be a deal breaker for people,” he said.

The US, UK, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Spain and South Korea have all imposed similar measures.

China’s foreign ministry has criticised the move despite also requiring a negative test to enter the mainland.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has said “authoritative medical experts from different countries have said that entry restrictions on travellers arriving from China are unnecessary”.

Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said it was a sensible measure that didn’t mean Chinese students couldn’t return to start or continue their studies. 

By Dominic Giannini in Canberra