China drops quarantine requirement for inbound travelers
Lifting the three-year-old rule, starting from Jan. 8

BY BNB Magazine

©Wikimedia Commons/Ptrump16

Chinese government insisted on its stringent Zero-Covid policy decided to lift its three-year-old lock-down measures after the recent blank paper demonstration across the country. China’s National Health Commission stopped releasing daily new Covid-19 infection data since last December 25th, and it officially announced the end of quarantine requirement for inbound travelers to be effective on January 8th.

The updated measures are as follows:

1. According to the border sanitation and quarantine act, epidemic quarantine management measures are not required for entry of personnel and cargo.
2. Visitors to China are subject to a mandatory nucleic acid test within 48 hours, and if the result is negative, the HDC code application with the Chinese Embassy is not required and one only needs to enter the result on the immigration health declaration form. If the result is positive, one must re-enter the country after receiving a negative result afterwards.
3. Nucleic acid test and facility quarantine after entry are no longer required. If the health declaration is normal and no issues found at the customs’ regular quarantine procedures, one can immediately start community activities.
4. Measures to control international flights* and number of passengers is no longer in effect. Each airline should perform thorough in-flight disinfection, and all passengers must wear a facial mask during flight.
   * Chinese government has imposed restrictions on airlines to operate only one flight per week per country.

5. By optimizing procedures for foreign visitors who want to enter China for resuming production and manufacturing activities, conducting business, studying abroad, visiting family, and so on, related visa issuance procedures will become more convenient.
6. Immigration through sea and land border checkpoints will be resumed gradually.
7. Chinese nationals’ overseas travel will be resumed gradually according to the global trend of infectious disease and the capability of providing various services.

Nonetheless, the virus infection rate is still quickly rising in China while newer variants are detected, making a visit to China still a questionable decision. The U.S. has made Covid-19 tests mandatory for all travelers from China beginning December 30th last year. This measure applies to all travelers on flights departing from China regardless of nationality.