My trip through China’s extreme Covid-19 quarantine measures from ‘contaminated’ Europe: hazmat suits, diapers, surveillance – and no alcohol
- Photojournalist Justin Jin felt like ‘a suspicious specimen abducted onto an UFO’ during his flight from Amsterdam to Shanghai to see his cancer-stricken father
- He was swiftly reprimanded for taking photos of the corridor outside his quarantine hotel room after being spotted via the security camera directed at his door
It’s November 2020 and my phone rings in Brussels. It’s my brother in Shanghai. He’s calling to tell me our father has cancer and I need to get there quickly to help make medical decisions. But the world is engulfed by a pandemic, and I’m sitting in a contaminated continent that tops China’s unwanted list.
To get on one of the few exorbitantly priced flights, I have to pass two Covid-19 tests. One will draw a sample from my nose and the other from my blood, with both needed to be taken within 48 hours before departure at a lab approved by the local Chinese consulate. When I get my results, I have to upload them together with a long list of personal data via a phone app to the consulate, which then activates a QR “health” code on my phone required for boarding my plane in Amsterdam.
The country that faltered after the coronavirus first broke out in Wuhan has now successfully tamped down the virus and they don’t want to let it spread again. China mandates all incoming travellers go into a strict two-week quarantine. Those arriving from European countries, which many in China perceive as unwilling or unable to control the outbreak, are particularly suspect.
In Sweden, where I spent the summer months, only the neurotic seemed to worry about Covid-19. Only once did I see a group of medical workers screening people at a shopping centre. It was for head lice.
After taking two weeks to get everything needed for my flight on a Chinese airline, I jolt as I board my plane in Amsterdam. Expecting smiling air stewards and hostesses, I see a phalanx of operators covered from head to toe in hazmat suits. Their extreme caution makes me feel like a suspicious specimen abducted onto an UFO.
