Covid-19 outbreaks in New Zealand and China highlight stark choices | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/16/outbreaks-in-beijing-and-new-zealand-highlight-perils-of-relaxing-rules
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f843e8e20af169c0041d5d9adbb5ede7c448ad4e/0_44_6394_3838/master/6394.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali
Last week, parts of the Chinese capital went back on a “wartime” footing after a cluster of cases emerged linked to the city’s biggest wholesale food market. Movement restrictions are back and residents have already been warned against leaving the city. Schools are closed.In New Zealand, two women who had flown in from Britain to see a dying relative tested positive after they had been released from quarantine for compassionate reasons.
The outbreaks have brought home the stark choices facing leaders who have successfully stamped out the virus or contained its transmission. If they want to hold on to that coveted status, their countries face months, perhaps years, sealed off from the world in a way unprecedented in modern times.
“They can maintain containment but doing so will probably require strict observance of quarantines by travellers,” said Prof Lindsay Wiley, director of the health law and policy program at American University Washington College of Law.“Testing of travellers upon entry may not be sufficient, given the incubation period and the risk of false negatives. But lengthy travellers’ quarantines are problematic for economies that depend on tourism and also interfere with business travel.” At present the borders of both China and New Zealand are only open to their citizens and a tiny number of foreigners granted special exemptions by authorities. Both require 14 days’ self-isolation for all arrivals so, even if restrictions on entry were eased, that effectively rules out most short-term visits for fun or work. Their citizens are largely cut off from the rest of the world; those willing to risk travel abroad must also be able to afford two weeks’ isolation on their return.
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