November 25th, 2020

The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Chinese Intervention Strategies

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As part of measures put in place to contain the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the People’s Republic of China recently announced a temporary suspension of entry into China by non-Chinese nationals in Nigeria who are holding valid visas or residence permits.
Having issued a notice earlier, requiring “China-bound Passengers in Nigeria to take Nucleic Acid Tests twice and obtain two COVID-19 Negative Certificates within 5days before boarding”, the recent announcement states that, the “Chinese Embassy and Consulate in Nigeria will no longer issue Certified Health Declaration Form for the above-mentioned set of individuals”.
It, however, noted that “Entry by holders of diplomatic, service, courtesy of C visas will not be affected. Foreign nationals visiting China for emergency needs may apply for visas at the Chinese Embassy or Consulate. Entry by non-Chinese nationals in Nigeria with visas issued after November 3, 2020, will not be affected”.

The suspension, it explained, is a temporary response necessitated by the current situation of Covid-19, promising that the measures will be assessed in accordance with the evolving situation and any adjustment will be announced accordingly.
Throwing more light on the development, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson stated that “As the epidemic situation overseas is getting worse, China is facing greater risks of imported cases. In October, the number of imported cases grew by 45 per cent compared with that in September. In the meantime, some domestic cases were also found. Under such circumstances, we have learned from other countries’ practices and further strengthened pre-departure prevention and control measures for travelers coming to China. This helps not only preserve the hard-won epidemic containment results in China but also minimize the risk of cross-infection during the travel and safeguard people’s health and security”.

Also on why the country has focused on the requirement of “Certificates of negative nucleic acid and IgM antibody test results” as part of the measures to clamp down on the spread of the disease, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson explained that, “The pre-departure nucleic acid testing for China-bound travelers has been essential in preventing epidemic importation. However, none of the existing test methods can be 100 per cent accurate at the moment. According to the competent authorities, IgM antibody test results are stable, and the passengers’ test results can be a lot more accurate if the test methods are combined. That’s why we now need IgM anti-body testing, too. We tried this in some countries earlier, and the effect was good. As I know, similar measures have been taken by some other countries, too”.

Explaining why it is necessary that travelers going to China via connecting flights will need to test twice, “The epidemic situation overseas is dire. Every time a passenger travelling to China transits in one more place, he or she will face greater risks of infection. Judging from previous imported cases, many people who had tested negative before travelling got infected later, the number of which accounted for nearly half of the imported cases. Therefore, an additional test in the transit place is necessary for epidemic prevention and control. At the same time, if you really need to make cross-border trips, we advise you to properly plan your route and try to choose direct flights and avoid transit as much as possible”.