China, the country where the COVID-19 outbreak began, has recently reduced the length of compulsory quarantine for arriving travelers, a major relaxation after following a strict zero COVID policy throughout the pandemic.

Under these new guidelines, the compulsory quarantine for travelers from overseas has been slashed to seven days, along with three days of home monitoring, a massive drop from that of 21 days of quarantine and home monitoring.

Earlier in 2020, China closed its international borders, while the number of international flights is still restricted tightly to reduce the imported virus cases as the pandemic rages elsewhere.

By then, overseas arrivals have undergone weeks of strict monitoring and expensive quarantines in hotels and designated centres.

Under the newest Covid prevention and control policy guidelines announced by the State Council and National Health Commission, the inbound travelers coming to China will be required to quarantine just for 7 days.

Since April, several cities have slashed the mandatory quarantine for overseas travelers to 10 days, including Beijing which also reduced the time span of quarantine.

Although, scarce international flights are subjected to cancellations frequently as Beijing operates a circuit breaker system where the routes are cancelled if positive passengers up to a certain number are discovered on board.

Additionally, earlier this month, China slightly relaxed visa restrictions for allowing foreigners to visit direct family members and foreign permanent residents staying in China.

This month, Chinese aviation regulation officials said in a briefing that China is still negotiating with other countries to increase the number of flights to China gradually.

In recent weeks, international students from several countries haven been allowed to return to China. For instance, Pakistan and India have been allowed to return to China for the first time since the outbreak.

Source Credit – https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220628-china-halves-quarantine-time-for-overseas-travellers