Letters | First-hand experience of China’s zero-Covid policy offers insight into costs and benefits
- From quarantine in a designated hotel to being checked on by a community officer at home, a comprehensive system is in place to detect cases
- Millions of medical workers, billions of dollars’ worth of equipment, endless days in quarantine and countless swab tests – it all adds up to lives saved on the mainland
Unless you come from a “low-risk” area, you will need to take a swab test within 48 hours of your time of departure. International flights into the country are limited to Shanghai and a handful of other cities.
Medical workers in full personal protective gear will administer four more swab tests and twice-daily temperature checks during your stay. Orders for meals, bottled water or sanitary equipment are made through a WeChat chat room with the hotel staff and guests. Meal quality varies between hotels, but you can always order takeaway. China’s highly developed e-commerce means you can have medicine, computer cables or pretty much anything delivered to your door.
Next comes a week of home quarantine. Within hours of leaving the quarantine hotel, you will be contacted by your neighbourhood community officer, who will check up on you at your home (or hotel) and ask you to sign an undertaking letter, promising not to leave your home or hotel unless “necessary”. This officer will ask you for daily body temperature readings.
In shopping malls and buildings, redundant entrances are shut off and the remaining essential entrances are attended to by security guards (who check your health code) and temperature monitoring devices.