Chinese citizens evacuated from Ukraine go through entry procedures at the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 5, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

 
At least three cities in China, namely Beijing, Nanjing, and Wuhan, appeared to have shortened quarantine time by three to seven days for international arrivals on trial basis, which now only requires seven days of centralized quarantine and another seven days of home quarantine, the Global Times has learned on Sunday. 

When the Global Times reached Beijing's COVID prevention hotline on Sunday, it was informed that starting from May 15, Beijing has reduced again the centralized quarantine time from 10 days to seven. 

Nucleic acid tests and antigen tests must be taken as required during the quarantine period. 

The capital city has already shortened the quarantine time for international arrivals. At a press conference on May 4, spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Government Xu Hejian said that given the characteristics of the short incubation period and mild clinical symptoms of the Omicron variant, an adjustment to the measures have already been made  when people entering the country via Beijing were required to undergo a 10-day quarantine instead of the previous 14 days at designated facilities and another 7-day quarantine at home. If they did not have a fixed domicile in Beijing, then they would have continued the quarantine at the designated facilities for another four days.

City hotline of Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province also confirmed such an adjustment to the Global Times. It said that four nucleic acid tests during the 7-day centralized quarantine and another three during the 7-day home quarantine will be given, while reminding that the policy will be updated every now and then based on the epidemic's situation and the current adjustment is only in a trial phase that started from Friday and will last till June 17. 

Wuhan of Central China's Hubei Province, which previously required international arrivals to quarantine for 21 days in total, has cut quarantine time by a whole week in the latest policy adjustment. After seven days of centralized quarantine, people are allowed to be transferred to their own homes in or outside Wuhan in a closed-loop to carry out the other seven days of quarantine, the city hotline told the Global Times.

Other landing ports in China, including Guangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Ji'nan and Dalian will keep implementing the 14+7 or 10+7 quarantine measures. 

Macao Special Administrative Region announced in a government notice on Saturday that, given the fact that the Omicron variant has a relatively short incubation period and could be detected normally within the first seven days after contact, Macao has decided to take the experiences from the Chinese mainland and will adjust its quarantine measures from 14 days of centralized quarantine to 10 days starting from Wednesday, coupled with another seven days of self-health monitoring. 

Additionally, Macao's Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng recently announced that four cities in the mainland are carrying out evaluation works for the 7+7 trial run, and Macao will try to follow suit and implement similar measures as well,media reported.