BEIJING, 16 April 2020:
Travelling to Beijing from Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak, is not an easy task.
Places on the only train line authorised to operate are limited – and upon arrival in the capital, a vehicle waits to transfer travellers to the home or hotel where they will isolate for 14 days.
To purchase a ticket to travel from Wuhan to Beijing, prospective passengers have to present medical tests that prove they do not have coronavirus – which is done via a complex mobile phone application which connects the health care authorities in the two locations.
Once the person is authorised to travel, they are put on a waiting list to purchase one of the thousand train tickets issued every day. A process that can take several days.
The medical test is valid for one week – so if tickets are not obtained in time, a repeat test may be necessary.
More than 11,000 people have been waiting to return to Beijing since Wuhan lifted an 11-week lockdown on April 8, the Beijing government recently reported.
Once the mobile app approves a ticket, prospective travellers have to buy it to get the pass issued upon arrival at the train station, although this process may not be straightforward.
At the station, an official warns one person that, although the purchased ticket is correct, there is an error with the passport number which does not appear in the system and it is impossible to issue the pass.
“It is an application thing, I cannot do anything, I am not authorised,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.
Only certain authorities can issue special passes written by hand and stamped to resolve these glitches.
In some cases, the delay in finding a ticket can take weeks – as happened to Alice, a young Chinese woman who travelled from Yichang in the province of Hubei to Beijing after requesting a ticket more than 20 times.
To travel to Beijing, the residents association of the complexes where people from Wuhan will stay must authorise the process on the mobile app. Otherwise, they cannot go.
“Beijing is very strict. Maybe they don’t trust Wuhan, the asymptomatic cases, or even the tests. The truth is, I don’t know, but at first I had problems with my community of neighbours here to return. I have been approved to travel now but there are other people who have lodged the request and had to wait a little longer,” she said over the phone.
As well as all these bureaucratic obstacles, passengers have to have their temperature checked before being allowed to travel.
Groups of medics in white suits and protective goggles wait at the entrances of train stations, where they screen passengers for a fever, one of the main symptoms of Covid-19.
During the journey, the security guards seem more relaxed. But at Beijing West Station, an entourage is waiting to accompany travellers to their final destinations, depending on the district of the city.
“You do not move from here, they will take you to the pavilion assigned to your district,” one of the workers directs.
After the final checks and more temperature controls, they give the green light so that newcomers can get on the bus which takes them to their neighbouring communities.
Once there, a community official accompanies the traveller to their doors and asks them to sign documentation agreeing not to leave the house under any circumstances for the next two weeks.
Some neighbours are not happy about having a person quarantining in the community, and angrily let the president know – forcing him to call the police to calm down the situation.
Anyone arriving in Beijing has to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, which can be done at home if the required procedures are followed.
In the end, the neighbours apologise for their reactions and offer to help with any problems during this period.
If the community had rejected the traveller’s request, they would be forced to pay a fee and quarantine in a hotel set up for this purpose on the outskirts of the city.
The Chinese capital has tightened controls as the country tries to keep imported cases at bay.
Moscow too tightened its quarantine controls with digital travel passes yesterday after a spike in coronavirus cases in the city.
Following China’s example, authorities in the Russian capital have introduced electronic permits for citizens who need to travel around the city.
Around 2.3 million QR codes have been issued which Muscovites can request if they need to go to work, a medical appointment or make another essential journey.
Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said last week, when he announced the measures, the situation in the city had worsened.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday the situation had been caused by residents failing to comply with directions from authorities to stay inside their homes and only go out for authorised reasons.
Officials reported 1,774 new cases in Moscow yesterday, putting the city’s total at 14,776.
The capital represents more than 60% of Russia’s infections, which reached a new high yesterday with 3,388 fresh cases, bringing the national total to 24,490. There have been 196 deaths in Moscow, out of a total of 198 across Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned the situation is deteriorating and asked residents to prepare for all scenarios.
Deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said on Monday there would be an increase of cases in Moscow this week and the beginning of next week before the infection curve begins to flatten.
The implementation of the new measures in Moscow, home to 13 million people, was not without initial problems.
Long traffic jams, some stretching 5km, were seen on the roads leading into the city and some metro stations were packed with travellers as they waited for police to check their passes and ID.
Photographs posted on social media show people, many without masks, crowding in together at station entrances.
Sobyanin said in a tweet that metro station queues were “critical” and asked police to avoid creating “massive crowds” while carrying out checks.
The queues dissipated after morning rush hour and the number of passengers was noticeably lower than previous days.
The implementation of the digital passes has also generated criticism among human rights organisations, activists and political opposition.
Moscow already has thousands of surveillance cameras which could be used to help monitor compliance with the quarantine.
Opposition activist Alexei Navalny took to Twitter to question why automated controls could not have been thought of before.
Russian human rights group Agora branded the measure “illegal” and said on its Telegram channel that “certain restrictions on rights and freedoms can only be established in a state of emergency with a mandatory indication of limits and duration”.
Sobyanin said personal data collected for the QR codes will be done in accordance with the law and that the information will be destroyed when the system ends.
– EFE