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News > China

China: Three Weeks in Quarantine for Those Arriving in Beijing

  • Passengers from Wuhan wait in line at a train station, Beijing, China, April 15, 2020.

    Passengers from Wuhan wait in line at a train station, Beijing, China, April 15, 2020. | Photo: EFE

Published 22 April 2020
Opinion

Authorities are focused on preventing the spread of COVID-19 from "imported" cases.

People arriving in Beijing from abroad will have to complete an additional week of domestic quarantine after the two currently required. This implies that the number of weeks of mandatory confinement is raised to three.

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Foreigners are currently banned from entering China, a national-level decision that exempts diplomats and some people related to trade or medical research. 

Until now, regulations required that a 14-day quarantine be kept in a hotel or in a center designated by the authorities, with a few exceptions in which Pekin residents could carry out confinement in their homes.

The three-weeks quarantine represents a further step in strengthening prevention measures announced by China in the new stage of the fight against the coronavirus.

After the success achieved in the control of contagions at the local level, authorities are now focusing their efforts on preventing the spread of COVID-19 from "imported" cases.

Beijing's decision happened precisely after a student coming from the U.S infected three members of his family. This occurred although he remained in quarantine for two weeks and the COVID-19 tests showed that he was not a positive case at the end of that period.​​​​​​​

Another 62 people who had close contact with him and his relatives have been placed in isolation under medical observation. This incident happened in the financial center of Beijing, the Chaoyang District, the only area officially considered a "high risk" zone in the country.

On March 20, this district also reported another COVID-19 positive case when a Chinese woman arriving from London had symptoms during the fourteen-days quarantine but did not report them to the observation staff at the assigned center.

Most scientists estimate that the virus can have an incubation period of up to 14 days before symptoms appear. However, some cases have shown that the pathogen can be carried asymptomatically for a longer period.​​​​​​​

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