Foreigner Quarantine Rules Adjusted as COVID-19 Spreads Abroad

原创 Michael Wester theBeijinger

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With outbreaks of COVID-19 appearing across the world, Beijing has once again adjusted its policy on outbreak control for foreigners returning from overseas, saying they will be treated no differently than Chinese and some will in fact be subject to mandatory quarantine.

Citizens coming from South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, and “other severely affected countries” are now required to conduct a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. The news came Tuesday afternoon at the city government's daily press conference on the outbreak.

This is a change from the city’s announcement just 13 days ago stating that anyone who had spent the last two weeks overseas would not have to do a 14-day quarantine. Of course at that time the coronavirus was still getting started outside of China – now the new number of infections overseas has outpaced domestic transmission.

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On Monday, China reported a total of 11 new infections outside of Hubei, eight of which were Chinese coming back from overseas.

The quarantine can be conducted at home and must be done according to the rules of your residential compound, officials announced. If you have no fixed residence in Beijing, you will be quarantined at a designated hotel or other facility with the expenses paid for by the city.

The press conference was careful to state that foreigners and Chinese should be treated no differently in terms of infection control, and that all foreigners should be brought into their community’s health management system. Foreigners should do their best to cooperate with their local community management, while on the flip side, local community managers should be respectful of foreign customs.

Chen Bei, Deputy Secretary-General of Beijing Municipal Government, stressed that Beijing needs to be extra careful not only because it’s the capital of China, but also because it has a large number of international residents and its airports are the arrival point for not only Beijing residents but hundreds of others returning to secondary destinations in China.

As we’ve said from the beginning of this situation, we think everyone who comes back from overseas should do a quarantine, whether they are being forced to or not. It's the responsible thing to do.