When he nevertheless had a day off on Wednesday and had time to make a stopover at the Chinese Embassy in central Singapore from his home in Kovan, in the northeast of the island, Chinese citizen Chen Ming sought to know only one thing: how could the coronavirus be tested?
He said this week in Asia that he had tickets to Guangzhou on September 6 with cheap airline Scoot, but that he had not yet gained any information on where it could be tested for Covid-19, a new requirement for travelers to China. . city-state, which will take effect on Friday.
After two years in Singapore’s food and beverage industry, Chen, who is not his genuine call, said he was in a position to return to his home country, but the new negative control outcome made him anxious, as Singapore only provides controls for patients with respiratory symptoms.
Chen’s not alone. While countries in the region are seamlessly opening their borders in an effort to revive the aviation industry, many potential travelers have felt angry and angry that they infrequently appear to be daily rule adjustments through governments seeking to save it from imported infections that can cause massive local problems. epidemics and force further closures.
China’s new requirement that Singapore travellers must have tested negative for Covid-19 in the five days prior to their departure was not announced until Friday and would enter into force after dozens of city-state passengers tested positive upon arrival.
The Chinese Embassy in Singapore said the new rule was implemented in at least 80 other countries. Earlier this month, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said travelers provide evidence that they do not have Covid-19 before boarding flights to China.
There is also confusion in Japan, where the government said it would only settle for the negative effects of a nasal test, while other countries like China conduct deep throat sampling tests.
However, a 25-year-old Chinese student who had been reviewed in Dalian and who showed her that she had lost the virus and returned won the polymeresis chain reaction test (PCR) of her saliva after arriving in Narita on August 11 and sending her back to China. Mainichi newspaper reported.
The woman, who was not identified, told the newspaper that she had been summoned to an airport workplace and that she had been given a paper with the message: “They will send you back to your country of departure. “
The health government said it may not be consistent with the effects of the Chinese check, even if a similar check in Japan had been negative. the end of September, quarantined for two nights at the airport before returning to Dalian.
New flights and quarantine prices charge you more than US$1350 (S$1844), he said, and now he has to spend two weeks quarantined in China.
“I’ve exhausted some of my tuition savings and I don’t have time to prepare for college exams,” the woman told Mainichi. “I probably wouldn’t go back to Japan. “
An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed policy on coronavirus testing to reach the country, but refused to comment on individual cases or provide the number of other people who were returned at access ports in Japan.
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Yoko Tsukamoto, professor of infection at Hokkaido University of Health Sciences, said Japan’s policy was based on the fact that “there is evidence that the virus remains in the mouth and top of the throat, but it is more difficult to trip down the lower throat. “”and added that Tokyo follows established rules through the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it’s not the first time
For Chen, who is about 30 years old, his visit to the Chinese embassy in Singapore on Wednesday did little to help.
No consular facilities were available, a sign indicating that the segment was only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a member of the embassy staff referred it to a notice issued a day before anyone traveling to China to paintings or corporations requested a Coronavirus Verification from the Singapore Ministry of Commerce.
The same statement, which Chen said only in English, was also issued through Singapore’s Ministry of Health, adding that those with a paint pass would have to apply through the Ministry of Labour.
Disturbed and unsure that he would board his flight, whose tickets cost more than S$1,000 (US$731), Chen took a taxi and returned home.
Others in the city-state were surprised by Beijing’s change of government.
An article about the popular Chinese microblogging Weibo on Sunday highlighting the challenge has been seen more than 15,000 times and won about 50 reviews.
One user stated that he had booked a flight on 30 August and did not yet know where he could be tested, although he advised him to go to Raffles Private Hospital.
On Tuesday, long outdoor queues formed at the Chinese embassy, as long-term travelers who were unsure of the arrangements they had made came en masse in search of answers.
A new warning was soon issued, which helped alleviate some of the anxiety, while several airlines also communicated with their consumers that they should fly in the coming days.
[incorporate] https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=1kj2FFeqnQY
Scoot, for example, sent an email around 2 p. m. on Tuesday to tell those who had tickets for a Sunday flight to Guangzhou that they could be examined at a regional inspection center in western Singapore for the charge of S$186 (US$136).
It was a relief for some, such as Shanghai-born Yin, who asked to be known only through his last call and went to the center for his nucleic acid review on Wednesday morning.
She said she started crying after learning of the new requirements, which may have disrupted her plans to return to her hometown by the end of the month.
“How am I going to locate a clinic that will allow me to get tested in a week?I cried after calling several hospitals and they didn’t answer my calls,” said Nanyang University’s 24-year-old technology graduate.
While Yin’s challenge has already been resolved, many others remain, and the lack of clarity affects more than mainland Chinese travelers hoping to return home.
Other countries, such as Sri Lanka, have also imposed legal liability with a negative control result, which has led to a series of bewildered messages asking for recommendations on various Facebook reader teams.
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In response, some shared the telephone numbers of GP clinics and only recommended going to hospitals and requiring control, which led some Singapore public hospitals to publish ice cream informing prospective patients that they are providing coronavirus screening tests to the general public.
IHH Healthcare, which operates 4 personal hospitals in Singapore, as well as several GP clinics, said two of its clinics were able to administer Covid-19 tests, but only for approved instances, such as those with a letter of approval. possibly under reciprocal “green roads” agreements for businesses and civil servants
To date, Singapore has only concluded these agreements with China, Malaysia and Japan, and recently authorized generals – adding for recreationals – to New Zealand and Brunei, while stressing that the lers would be the subject of all measures implemented through the governments of those countries.
The Singapore Department of Health did not have to wait without delay to comment on covid-19 control for outdoor travelers, reciprocal greenway agreements when contacted through This Week In Asia, the Immigration Authority’s online page and Checkpoints lists clinics where travelers under such agreements can be downloaded prior to departure. Covid-19 controls.
For the latest coronavirus updates, here.
This article was first published in the South China Morning Post.