Zero Covid Strategy
Three months instead of three weeks: US lawyer reports on his quarantine odyssey in China
Chinese in corona protective suits: Because of the strict corona measures, the metropolis of Shanghai has been like a ghost town for weeks
© Hector Retamal / AFP
It reads like the most absurd streak of bad luck since the pandemic began. Actually, a lawyer from Los Angeles only wanted to visit his parents in China. Instead, he endured a three-month quarantine odyssey.
Actually, Xue Liangquan just wanted to visit his parents in China, whom he hadn’t seen since the pandemic began. Even before departure, the 37-year-old lawyer, who practices in Los Angeles, knew that entry would not be exactly straightforward.
But instead of celebrating the Chinese New Year with his mother and father after a three-week hotel quarantine as planned, he left the country three months and several hospital and hotel isolations later. He didn’t see his parents for a minute.
Xue recorded the story of his ordeal in a detailed, illustrated blog post on the social media platform WeChat. The New York Times and Business Insider reported.
Six weeks of quarantine, two days of freedom
As required, he submitted negative corona test results to the Chinese authorities in advance. His flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou on January 2 cost $7,600. After the three-week, statutory hotel quarantine in the southern Chinese port metropolis, Xue wanted to travel to Shandong province in the east of the country to finally see his parents again. That’s the plan.
But everything turned out differently thanks to China’s strict “zero Covid strategy”, which includes some of the strictest quarantine rules in the world. After his arrival in Guangzhou, he was initially sent to hotel quarantine as expected after being tested again. At first glance, it could have been worse for him: Photos show a simple but clean room, and there was even a jacuzzi, reports Xue.
Apparently, the first bad news was not long in coming: his test at the airport was positive. So into the full-body protective suit, out of the hotel and straight to the hospital in an ambulance – his home for the next four weeks.
He is said to have shared his room there with two other Corona positives. He reassured his parents every day via video chat, assuring them that his symptoms were mild and that he would be treated well. He also worked from the “home office” for his law firm in California. After all, there wasn’t much else to do.
On January 31, on the eve of the Chinese New Year he originally planned to spend with his parents, he watched the Spring Festival Gala on his tablet, alone.
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The next day, a month after entering the country, Xue was released from hospital quarantine – only to go straight to the nearest hospital. The 37-year-old claims to have spent two more weeks in a ward for those who have recovered. Instead of finally going to Shandong to visit his parents, he took a plane to Shanghai to visit other relatives. Because in his home province the corona measures were much stricter.
After a negative test in Shanghai, Xue was free for the first time in six weeks. His luck lasted two days.
“I can only blame myself”
According to the Guangzhou Health Authority, the only other person Xue was on a bus from the hospital with was infected. Because he himself is now considered a close contact, he has to be in hotel quarantine again.
When he was to be released from isolation number three on March 6, the phone rang, the health authority on the other end. Xue has now infected himself. “I asked them to show me the report but they said they didn’t have it and were just following orders,” Business Insider quoted the lawyer’s blog post as saying.
Again hospital, again hotel. When Xue is allowed back on the streets on March 31, all he wants to do is go back to the United States. The only relative he saw in China was his younger brother in Shanghai.
Whether the measures were excessive in the end or he just had an absurd streak of bad luck: Ultimately, Xue doesn’t want to blame anyone for his three-month Corona odyssey. “I don’t blame anyone: any person, government or organization […] I can only blame myself because I was so unlucky,” the New York Times quoted the 37-year-old as saying.
However, he only wants to try again once the restrictions in China have been relaxed. As of now, that could take a while. Shanghai has been like a ghost town for weeks, international travel to and from China is practically no longer possible.
Sources: “We Chat” post, “New York Times”, “Business Insiders”.