China coronavirus quarantine diary: ‘stigmatised, but the moment I saw my parents, the 28 days had paid off’

Name: Jilin bears brunt of China's Omicron surge, Shanghai hit by record rise in Covid-19 cases
Uploaded: 2022-03-24T15:00:18.000Z
Duration: 3 min 11 s
Description: Jilin bears brunt of China's Omicron surge, Shanghai hit by record rise in Covid-19 cases

China has resolutely stuck to its zero-Covid approach to dealing with the coronavirus, which differs from many countries who are moving to a ‘living with the virus’ approach

SCMP reporter Ji Siqi decided to return to her hometown despite Shenyang having the world’s most stringent coronavirus quarantine measures for overseas travellers

Reading Time:4 minutes

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Ji Siqi

Published: 11:00pm, 24 Mar 2022Updated: 9:39am, 25 Mar 2022

South China Morning Post economy desk reporter Ji Siqi recently flew home to mainland China from Hong Kong having not seen her family in her hometown of Shenyang in the northeastern province of Liaoning for over a year due to coronavirus restrictions. In a three-part diary, she will recount her 28-day mandatory hotel quarantine experience, which falls under the world’s longest virus prevention measures for overseas travellers – totalling 56 days. You can read the first part here and second part here.

Day 21-28: Shanghai to Shenyang quarantine hotel

Simply securing a flight ticket is no longer enough for me to get home. As a person coming from overseas within 28 days, I need to report to the community workers responsible for my neighbourhood in Shenyang about my impending return first.

I felt terribly sorry about disturbing someone on Sunday, but I had no other choice. Ever since the pandemic began, some 4 million community workers haven’t really enjoyed their weekends, as the burden of carrying out China’s zero-Covid prevention measures at ground level have fallen on their shoulders.

When I messaged the worker handling my case, she was organising mass testing in one of the neighbourhoods she was in charge of.

As soon as I was released from the second quarantine hotel, I got on a taxi to the airport. I had arrived in the city in the cold of winter, and three weeks later when I was leaving, the taxi driver was wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt, while rapeseed flowers bloomed along the motorway.

03:11

Jilin bears brunt of China's Omicron surge, Shanghai hit by record rise in Covid-19 cases

The check-in procedure at the airport for me took extra time as I was to return to quarantine when I arrived in Shenyang. And apparently, my information had been shared with staff at Shenyang airport, because when I landed, I was asked to remain on the plane until all the other passengers got off.