The government has claimed that such tests provide a higher
degree of accuracy than other screening methods for the virus, the Times UK
reported.
As part of the new travel requirement, there will be testing
hubs in Beijing and Shanghai airports, the outlet reported.
Li Tongzeng, a respiratory disease medic, said the anal
swabs are better because virus traces stay in fecal samples longer than they do
in the nose or throat, state media reported.
“Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they
received anal swab tests, which caused a great psychological pain,” Katsunobu
Kato, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, told a news conference.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, however,
defended the screenings as “science-based.”
The tests are “in accordance with the changes in the
epidemic situation as well as relevant laws and regulations,” he said.