China is easing border restrictions to allow some foreigners back in, including those from the U.S., India and Australia, provided they have taken a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine. The country has been closed to most foreigners since last March to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Chinese embassies in about 20 countries have issued notices saying the country will open visa applications to select people who have taken a China-made vaccine. According to the new visa policy, foreign nationals and their family members traveling to the Chinese mainland to resume work need only to provide the documents required before the Covid-19 pandemic when applying for a visa. Foreign family members of Chinese citizens or permanent residents can apply for visas “out of emergency humanitarian needs” once their vaccination certificates are obtained. The new visa rule applies to those who had either had two doses of the vaccine or a single-dose at least 14 days before applying for the visa.

But while the requirements to apply for a Chinese visa have been slightly simplified, the procedure to board flights to China and the quarantine upon arrival have not. Passengers flying directly to the Chinese mainland still have to take a nucleic acid test and serum IgM anti-body test and apply for a green health code with the “HS” mark or a certified Health Declaration Form before boarding, and have to be quarantined upon arrival for two to three weeks. Applicants in Hong Kong who have received a Chinese vaccine are exempted from providing a negative nucleic acid test and health certification. 

The country had administered 74.96 million vaccine doses as of March 20. China aims to vaccinate 40% of its 1.4 billion people by the middle of the year, according to He Qinghua, a National Health Commission official. “We do not exempt vaccinated people from testing and quarantine for the time being,” said Feng Zijian, Vice Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. But he said China will pay attention to international progress in developing “vaccine passports” and could adjust measures to control the epidemic after the domestic population reaches a high level of immunization. The relatively low rate of vaccination in China was one reason Feng cited for maintaining the current measures for overseas arrivals. He also noted concerns about how effective vaccines are against new variants of the virus. 

China has approved five domestically-made vaccines for use in the country, but has yet to approve any foreign-made ones. China approved a recombinant protein subunit vaccine against Covid-19 for emergency use. It was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical. It is currently in late-stage clinical trials in countries including Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Ecuador and Indonesia, with plans to inoculate 29,000 volunteers. It has already been approved for general use in Uzbekistan. Subunit protein vaccines contain purified pieces of the virus’s protein to train the immune system. These fragments are incapable of causing disease, making such vaccines very safe.

The number of flights entering and leaving Beijing is surging due to a loosening of quarantine policies for travelers, a sign of the gradual recovery of China’s transportation and tourism sectors after the pandemic. A total of 1,668 flights entered or left Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport on March 16, up 20.1% over March 9 and the highest so far in 2021, according to Chinese flight information provider VariFlight. Passenger load factors on March 16 at the two airports increased to 72%, up 28.6 percentage points from a week earlier. China Railway Beijing Group Co also said the volume of passengers entering Beijing by rail rose significantly on March 16 to 276,800, nearly 100,000 more than a day earlier. With two approaching holidays – Qingming Festival and Labor Day – domestic hotels are seeing more bookings. Chinese online travel agency Trip.com expects about 100 million domestic tourists to make trips during the Qingming Festival holiday.

China’s imported cold-chain food industry, once a center of attention over repeated Covid-19 cases, is bouncing back after a surge in consumption during and after the Chinese Spring Festival. Salmon from Norway and cherries from Chile are popular once again, the Global Times reports. Sales are picking up in restaurants and stores, and a full recovery is expected in the second half of the year. Norway exported 21,867 tons of seafood to China worth USD68.7 million so far this year, Victoria Braathen, Director for the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong at the Norwegian Seafood Council, said. Imported cold-chain food came under close scrutiny following rising numbers of reported Covid-19 cases since June 2020, when the coronavirus was detected on a chopping board used by a vendor of imported salmon at the Xinfadi market in Beijing. Some cherry importers are now trying to make up for losses caused by Covid-19. “The pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the cherry industry. Many people I know went bankrupt. But there are always profits and losses in business. I hope that the pandemic can be controlled this year, and as long as Chinese people still love imported cherries, there is an opportunity,” an imported cherry dealer  told the Global Times.

A medical worker at a hospital’s quarantine ward in Xian, Shaanxi Province, was confirmed as a Covid-19 case on March 18, ending the Chinese mainland’s 31-days of zero new domestically-transmitted cases since February 15. An accidental exposure in the isolation ward caused the infection. The medical worker was responsible for collecting nucleic acid test samples of Covid-19 patients and carrying out laboratory tasks in the hospital. He had recently received his second vaccine dose. Zeng Guang,  Chief Epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that coronavirus treatment hospitals are high-risk areas where infection of  vaccinated medical staff could no be ruled out. The hospital has eight imported cases and five asymptomatic cases under quarantine.

This overview is based on reporting by the South China Morning Post, the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.