Unexpected long holidays: pandemic restrictions leave travellers stranded in Hong Kong, uncertain when they can leave
- Plans stalled by lockdown, quarantines, airline curbs, bans on visitors
- Teacher stranded six weeks in Hong Kong; family relocates, leaving pet dogs behind
When American teacher Seth Collins left Shenzhen in February to visit his mother in the United States, he had no inkling of the trouble he would have returning.
“I'm in limbo,” said Collins, 40, now stranded in Hong Kong for six weeks and anxious to get back to his job at Shenzhen Polytechnic and his girlfriend waiting across the mainland Chinese border.
As travel restrictions kicked in with the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, he found himself stalled, first by Hong Kong quarantine requirements and then the mainland’s ban on foreigners.
The pandemic has left at least 3.2 million people sick worldwide, and more than 233,000 have died. It has resulted in lockdowns across the globe, and restrictions that have taken a heavy toll on tourism and air travel, affecting travellers everywhere.
I woke up to messages from my girlfriend saying, ‘I don’t think you’re going to be able to get back to Shenzhen’
Collins, who has lived in Shenzhen for the past year and in Wuhan for four years before that, left via Hong Kong to see his mother in Kentucky and help her move house.
When he set off on February 24, the Covid-19 situation on the mainland and in Hong Kong appeared to be improving, and the number of confirmed cases in the US was low.