Japan will next month double its limit on foreign arrivals to 20,000 a day, the top government spokesperson said on Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a regular news conference that travellers from most countries, about 80% of the total foreign entrants to Japan, would not be required to provide proof of negative COVID tests, nor would they have to quarantine on arrival.

This included people from all other members of the G7 group of developed economies.

Japan is accepting business travellers, foreign students and academics but not tourists, except a limited number in a trial of package tours.

Matsuno said experience with the trials would be used in later decisions to further reopen.

Travellers flying to China from U.S. cities including Los Angeles, New York and San Francesco from May 20 will no longer need a RT-PCR test seven days before flights, notices issued late on Tuesday by the Chinese embassy and consulates showed.

Previous requirements on antibody tests before flights will be removed as well, the notices said.

Travellers still need to do two RT-PCR tests within 48 hours or 24 hours of their flights – depending on which airport they are flying out of – plus another antigen test, those notices showed.

Beijing on Sunday extended guidance to work from home in four districts of the Chinese capital, including the largest, Chaoyang, as the city tries to stop a COVID-19 outbreak.

Beijing found 55 new cases in the 24 hours to 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday, 10 of which were outside areas that under quarantine, officials said. The city is scrambling to stamp out such community infections.