Coronavirus: China steps up border controls in race to contain fast-spreading Delta variant

Name: Covid-19 returns to China’s Wuhan as Delta variant spreads to 10 provinces
Uploaded: 2021-08-05T13:09:58.000Z
Duration: 2 min 23 s
Description: Covid-19 returns to China’s Wuhan as Delta variant spreads to 10 provinces

Strict entry-exit rules, and daily tests for border staff in the mix as country rushes to keep infections down, with 20 task force teams sent to key port cities

But prevention and control are being made more challenging by various sources of imported cases

Reading Time:3 minutes

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A Covid-19 screening station in a deserted departure hall at Beijing Capital International Airport on August 5, as China imposed new travel and movement restrictions amid a Delta-driven outbreak, with hundreds of cases scattered across half the country. Photo: Bloomberg

Echo Xie

Published: 9:09pm, 5 Aug 2021Updated: 11:24am, 6 Aug 2021

China has stepped up border controls and restricted outbound travel in an effort to minimise domestic transmission of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has already spread to 17 Chinese provinces and more than 130 countries worldwide.

The reinforcement of border controls came after Chinese immigration authorities vowed to tighten restrictions on entry and exit permits and to impose a temporary freeze on issuing passports for “non-urgent or unnecessary travel”.

Despite mounting calls for China to open its borders, the country has been pressing ahead with a “zero tolerance” approach to contain the spread of Covid-19 – by implementing strict lockdowns and restrictions at home and imposing stringent entry rules at the borders.

Only 335,000 passports were issued across the country in the first half of this year for people who study and work overseas or travel for business, accounting for just 2 per cent of the total for the same period in 2019, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Limiting the issuance of passports is one of the restrictive measures China has undertaken to minimise the risk of coronavirus outbreaks. The aim is to control the number of imported cases while authorities try to boost vaccination rates at home to reach herd immunity.

More than 1.7 billion vaccine doses had been administered as of Wednesday, according to the National Health Commission, but it is still a long way to herd immunity, which would require 83 per cent of the country’s population of 1.4 billion to be inoculated, as respiratory experts have pointed out.

02:23

Covid-19 returns to China’s Wuhan as Delta variant spreads to 10 provinces

Business travellers are asked to take multiple Covid-19 tests and undergo between 14 and 21 days of quarantine.

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