Mainland China will cut its Covid-19 isolation period for inbound visitors from foreign countries from “7+3” to “5+3” days, National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China announced today in its “Notice on Further Optimising the Prevention and Control Measures of the New Coronary Pneumonia and Scientifically Precise Prevention and Control”.
According to the notice, for those entering the country, the “7-day centralised quarantine plus 3-day home health monitoring will be adjusted to 5-day centralised quarantine plus 3-day home quarantine”. During the three days of home quarantine, they will be assigned a code and not be allowed to go out.
A nucleic acid test (NAT) will be carried out on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th day during the centralised quarantine and also on the 1st and 3rd day during the three days of home quarantine.
In addition, arriving travellers will be allowed to enter the country with just one negative PCR test within the 48 hours before boarding, with the threshold for a positive PCR test to be dropped from 40 to 35.
The centralised quarantine period for close contacts is also reduced from the previous seven to five days, while close contacts of people who have been in close contact with a positive Covid-19 case will no longer need to undergo quarantine and medical surveillance, South China Morning Post reported.
Meanwhile, the notice also pointed out that mainland China’s so-called “circuit breaker mechanism will be cancelled. Under the mechanism, airlines found to be carrying several positive Covid-19 cases into the country are suspended from operation for a period of time.
There is no announcement yet about when exactly the new measures will be implemented.
