Covid-19 in China

[Randy W]

Hong Kong international travel policies changing - from the SCMP

 

I think it applies only to those leaving the international area, but I don't see where it says that. That is, I would think you could transit to another country, or take the ferry to Shenzhen without being quarantined until you reach your destination.

 

Macau is closed to foreign visitors, except as noted below.

 

What Hong Kong arrivals need to know about quarantine measures

 

People landing at the airport can shorten the wait by filling out electronic health declarations before disembarking

But even if you pass the checks, you are still required to wear a wristband linked to a smartphone app

Non-residents are required to confine themselves to hotels or other dwellings for 14 days. If you are not able to arrange accommodation, you will be sent to temporary sites provided by the government to conduct quarantine.

Only residents of either mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or people who hold Macau immigration status as a non-resident worker can enter Macau from Wednesday, according to that city’s government.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP - some fascinating stories about being trapped in Wuhan

 

Coronavirus: stranded in Wuhan, the people who just want to go home

 

Thousands of outsiders are stuck in Wuhan after the city went into lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Often jobless, homeless and alone, they tell their stories of survival and their hopes it will all end soon.

 

It wasn’t his plan. He had been on a train from Shanghai to the southern city of Changsha, in Hunan province, to sign a contract with a business partner in early February. While on the train, he left his compartment to buy lunch.

 

Just then, the train stopped at Wuhan. People sitting near him immediately stood up to get off. As passengers around him disembarked, the train conductor urged Jiang to get off too. He tried to explain he was headed for a different city, with no success.

 

“The [staff] were looking at me as if I carried the virus,” he told the South China Morning Post. “They kept their distance from me and backed away as I walked towards them.”

 

He finally got off the train. The platform was empty, all entrances were closed and there was no one at the ticket stands. He couldn’t buy a ticket to other cities. He had become one of thousands of outsiders stranded in Wuhan as it tried desperately to contain the virus.

 

Since January 23, all transport in, out and within Wuhan has been stopped. However, some locals who had been stranded outside Hubei took trains passing through the city before begging to be let off there. More often than not, the trains made exceptions.

 

Jiang was on one of those trains.

 

After the initial shock wore off, Jiang – from China’s northeast city of Dalian – wandered around his unfamiliar surroundings. There were no cars on the roads, no people on the streets. He felt like a vagabond. He looked up hotels online but none were open.

 

He called the local police and ambulance services. Both said they wanted to help with his situation, but couldn’t spare a car to pick him up.

 

He was offered a job at the Wuhan No 1 Hospital cleaning and taking out rubbish for 500 yuan (US$70) a day. The hospital was understaffed; many of the regular cleaners were either locked out of the city or too afraid to come in. The hospital arranged a hotel for him to stay in and provided three meals a day.

 

. . .

 

Another said he had just opened a factory back home, and all of his 70 employees were demanding their salaries. He couldn’t get orders and couldn’t pay back bank loans. “Fifteen years of hard work might go down the drain,” he wrote.

 

. . .

 

Supply chains have been disrupted. With Wuhan getting warmer, Yang tried to buy summer clothes, but was told they could not be delivered.

 

“We’re still wearing snow boots and down coats,” she said.

 

 

 

[DocMartin817]

We are stuck here too in Wuhan. Luckily my business is 95% online and I have a good project coordinator back home -- so we are doing okay. Almost all my bills I can pay online. Worried that my grass is going to get too hight back home soon. Will try and get someone to mow it. Our apartment compound is still on complete quarantine. But no shortages of food. Wine supply is low and the one guy who delivers to us only has rot gut cheap Chinese wines. Oh well it that is the most of my problems, then I am doing okay.

[Randy W]

from TheChinaTrips on Facebook

International flights to Beijing to be diverted.

Quote

Passengers who passed quarantine inspection can fly to Beijing on the original flight

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/2358098751081249/posts/3315089515382163/

Edited June 8, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Details on Gweilo 60's trip back to Nanning with his wife - restrictions and forced quarantine at a high end hotel (although they did talk them into a cheaper one - separate rooms were required for the quarantine).

This provides a pretty good picture of what ANYONE would face on a trip to China.

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Martin B]

Details on Gweilo 60's trip back to Nanning with his wife - restrictions and forced quarantine at a high end hotel (although they did talk them into a cheaper one - separate rooms were required for the quarantine).

This provides a pretty good picture of what ANYONE would face on a trip to China.

 

Awesome video. Really wished he made more of these videos like he did before, rather than just drunkenly praise the CPC.

[Greg.D.]

You’re right: peppier and more to the point. Even after major sleep deprivation. But, may have been the subject matter or several months of breathing cleaner air that invigorated him.

 

 

I assume after they check in they can they can join each other in their rooms.

[Randy W]

You’re right: peppier and more to the point. Even after major sleep deprivation. But, may have been the subject matter or several months of breathing cleaner air that invigorated him.

 

 

I assume after they check in they can they can join each other in their rooms.

 

 

 

They can co-mingle, but only at a distance

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Randy W
quarantine videos deleted by grey loud, now restored (see edit history)

[Cale1953]

You’re right: peppier and more to the point. Even after major sleep deprivation. But, may have been the subject matter or several months of breathing cleaner air that invigorated him.

 

 

I assume after they check in they can they can join each other in their rooms.

Didn't sound like it.

Grey Loud is going to need more Baijiu if hes going to make for fourteen days.

[Martin B]

My bullshit alarm goes off every time this guy talks about how his wife told off a cop, or told some immigration officers she wasn't going to take their crap, or got angry and confronted a guard, or whatever. Yeah, an alcoholic Canadian and his nobody wife coming in on visas/residence permits are calling the shots with the Chinese government, while the country is desperately trying to keep the virus from resurging ...

[Greg.D.]

Re co-mingling: in short, I don’t think I know one Chinese person who follows all the rules. In short.

 

Regarding getting in a cop’s or official’s face: I have seen that a lot. What would get you tased here often is tolerated and the berater and the berated calmly go their separate ways.

 

The thing most video tour guides to China fail to accomplish is showing life inside the home. That’s what I want to see. Those are the memories I bring back. Or ...

 

getting into the small towns rather than the typical tourist places. Gweilo and others walk around with the selfie stick showing you people on the street; it’s dizzying. Been there done that please please please do something else. Amy Blondie can pull it off and the motorcycle guys did it especially well in their travel documentaries (one has been on amazon, don’t know if it’s still there)

 

Small town life is some of the best in China (of course, I would go crazy without a free internet)

[Cale1953]

My bullshit alarm goes off every time this guy talks about how his wife told off a cop, or told some immigration officers she wasn't going to take their crap, or got angry and confronted a guard, or whatever. Yeah, an alcoholic Canadian and his nobody wife coming in on visas/residence permits are calling the shots with the Chinese government, while the country is desperately trying to keep the virus from resurging ...

It doesn't surprise me, he's kind of an asshole, he used to run a collection agency in Saskatchewan, so he has a thick skin.

[Greg.D.]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/life-on-lockdown-in-china

 

A nice, in English account of an American professor's lockdown in Chengdu. You can feel how insanely efficient the neighborhood committee's are.

 

 

 

The Party secretary explained that the resident had travelled to his home town, in Hubei, during the Lunar New Year holiday. In the early days of the epidemic, the government tracked such links so intensively that locals became terrified by the sight of a car with Hubei plates. Many Chengdu hotels turned away guests from Wuhan, so the government finally designated twelve lodgings to accept them. A friend of mine in another part of the city passed along a WeChat conversation that had occurred among people in her compound:

Resident 1: Yesterday somebody said there was a car with Hubei plates at the underground car park of Building 2.

Property Management: O.K., I will send somebody immediately to check it out.
Resident 2: What the fuck? This is not funny!
Resident 1: Please have the door guard pay attention . . .
Resident 2: I think that now we should show our I.D. card to go in and out!!!
Resident 3: Quickly, call 110 [police] or 120 [emergency ambulance]!

[Martin B]

Back in January/February when the virus was in full swing in china, my wife would call her parents (who still live in Guangdong) everyday. I would often join in on the calls.

 

If there's one thing I will never forget, it's that the CPC/police/military/neighborhood guards DID NOT F**K AROUND.

[Greg.D.]

This follows a paper estimating 60% of Wuhan infections were never tallied. Which helps explain why the Wuhan fatality rate was so high. Anyway, this is just a correction to practices in order to restore credibility to government announcements.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/asia/china-coronavirus-li-keqiang-intl-hnk/index.html

 

 

China's premier warns local officials not to hide new coronavirus infections

 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has warned local officials not to hide new coronavirus cases, after the country reported several days of no locally transmitted infections in a major turnaround in its fight against the deadly pandemic.

Li, the country's second-in-command, urged local governments Monday to "seek truth from facts" and be "open and transparent" in releasing information on the epidemic.

"Being open and transparent means a new case must be reported once it's discovered. It is what it is. There must be no concealing or underreporting," he told senior officials tasked with battling Covid-19 during a meeting he chaired, according to an official government statement posted online Tuesday.

.....

Being transparent also means the public is less likely to let down its guard, which can help the implementation of epidemic control measures and prevent a rebound in cases, Li added.

On Tuesday, after new cases dropped to zero for five consecutive days, Wuhan reported a new confirmed case -- a doctor working at the Hubei General Hospital. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement that the possibility of cross-infection within that hospital could not be ruled out.

.....

In China, only patients showing symptoms and positive results in nucleic tests are included in the official tally of confirmed cases. Asymptomatic patients who have tested positive are monitored and placed under quarantine until they develop symptoms or turn negative in later tests.

The World Health Organization, however, says in its guideline that "a person with laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 infection, irrespective of clinical signs and symptoms" should be counted as a confirmed case.