China has ruled out any relaxation of its cross-border policies, citing Covid-19 surges at home and overseas as it battles the worst outbreaks since the start of the pandemic.
Stricter control measures have also been introduced in the capital Beijing, along with an expansion of online teaching, despite only 12 positive samples from the first round of mass testing of about 20 million residents.
And in the southern city of Guangzhou, mass testing was ordered for all residents in Baiyun and Huadu districts after an “abnormal” result was picked up on Wednesday night from the routine testing of employees at the international airport.
Most flights were cancelled as the airport was put in “effective control”, with some domestic travel expected to resume on Thursday afternoon.
National immigration authority spokesman Chen Jie told a closed media briefing late on Wednesday that the country would continue to implement a “strict and tight” policy during the outbreak.
According to a statement issued after the briefing, Chen said the immigration authority was resolute in playing its official role in the dynamic zero strategy, through strict border controls to prevent the introduction of the virus from overseas.
“The immigration management agencies at all borders will continue to maintain the highest level of prevention and control.”
Chen said there were 30.09 million outbound trips in the first three months of the year, 14.62 million by Chinese residents – a 1.2 per cent decrease on the previous quarter and a 5.9 per cent fall on the same period last year.
While China’s political centre Beijing resorts to drastic measures to try and stop infections at an early stage, its financial powerhouse Shanghai has been in lockdown for more than a month. At least 15 provinces have also recorded local infections in recent days.
Beijing responded swiftly to a small outbreak of six cases last Friday, ordering almost citywide mass testing, with the aim of completing three rounds by Saturday. The first round picked up 12 positive samples, according to local health official Li Ang.
The cases were picked up in pool testing which has three to 10 samples in one test and the infected people had been identified, isolated and contact tracing had been done, Li said. The second round of testing began on Wednesday.
As Shanghai and Beijing stick ever more closely to Covid Zero principles, Hong Kong is methodically moving towards opening up to the rest of the world.
On Tuesday (May 3), the government brought forward a plan to ease social distancing rules, allowing people to go mask-free when exercising outdoors and doubling the maximum number of diners per table to eight. That came two days after Hong Kong ended a two-year ban on visits by all non-residents and eased some restrictions on inbound flights.
*Source from SCMP