Big news has just been announced for travellers to China. The quarantine period which was up to 21 days in 'centralized isolation,' usually in a hotel room, has now been shortened in a major step toward relaxing Covid rules by the government. Here's what we know...
The changes to China's Covid control plan
The isolation and control time for close contacts and inbound personnel has been adjusted from "14 days of centralized isolation medical observation + 7 days of home health monitoring" to "7 days of centralized isolation medical observation + 3 days of home health monitoring"!
On June 28, the official website of the National Health Commission released the "New Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Plan (Ninth Edition)". Compared with the eighth edition, the following revisions were made:
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Optimize and adjust the isolation management period and method of risk personnel
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Unified standards for the delineation of closed control areas and medium and high-risk areas
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Improve epidemic monitoring requirements
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Optimizing Regional Nucleic Acid Detection Strategies
Among them, the "optimization and adjustment of the isolation management period and method of risk personnel" are as follows:
Adjusted the isolation and control time for close contacts and inbound personnel from "14-day centralized isolation medical observation + 7-day home health monitoring" to "7-day centralized isolation medical observation + 3-day home health monitoring", and nucleic acid testing measures were changed from "centralized isolation medical observation". Nucleic acid testing on the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 14th days of observation, collection of nasopharyngeal swabs, and double-collection and double-examination before release from quarantine” was adjusted to “Centralized isolation medical observation on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th days and home health monitoring on the first day. 3-day nucleic acid testing, collection of oropharyngeal swabs", and double sampling and double testing are not required before the release of centralized isolation and medical observation.
The close control measures have been adjusted from "7-day centralized isolation medical observation" to "7-day home isolation medical observation", and nucleic acid testing on the 1st, 4th, and 7th days.
Image source: nhc.gov
What does it all mean?
Basically, the likelihood of a 2-3 week hotel room quarantine was high for permitted travellers (Chinese nationals, foreigners already resident in China, or new foreign arrivals moving for work) until this rule change. Travellers would probably all agree that the new 1 week in a hotel, plus a few days at home, is a more appetising quarantine period.
Add to this the announcement from Beijing earlier in June 2022 that those applying for working or family visas no longer need "PU Letters" and that there will be more international flights allowed into the country, and it seems that more obstacles are being removed from the travel process. We know that foreign workers have been able to come to China and start working during the pandemic, but this shows that family members of Chinese nationals, such as foreign spouses, now have the opportunity to travel to China to see family, too, rather than foreigners only being permitted for work.
We're not out of the woods yet - but it seems that travel to China is becoming easier than before.
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What do YOU think? Is this welcome news? Would/can you visit China now? Let us know in the comments or get in touch if you have any questions!
