China shortens COVID quarantine time for international travellers

Beijing: China today shortened the quarantine period for international travellers who enter the mainland and close contacts of COVID-19 infected patients. The time has been reduced from 14 days of quarantine at a centralized facility and another seven days of home health monitoring to seven and three days respectively, state media reported quoting officials. It is seen as a big step toward relaxing COVID controls that have persisted for more than two years, but officials said that it is an updated epidemic prevention protocol and not a relaxation of the dynamic Zero-COVID policy.

This is good news for thousands of Indian students and families who are waiting for their return to China. China has started accepting visa applications for family reunion purposes, but there is no announcement yet on student’s visa. After the visa, the next step would be to find a flight to China as there are no direct flights between India and China at the moment and also bear the cost of quarantine and the associated COVID protocols during that period. China began to tighten its borders in late March 2020 as COVID-19 started to come under control domestically while spreading rapidly overseas. COVID-19 first emerged in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Officials also insisted that it is simply aimed at more accurate and scientific prevention, as top envoys in Beijing and foreign chambers of commerce in China have expressed their frustration many times with China’s quarantine policy under the Zero-COVID approach because it kept their top executives away from their field offices in China. In the capital city of Beijing in early May had required 10 days in centralized quarantine and seven days at home, down from 14 days of centralized quarantine.