As work on developing a vaccine is continuing in China, Chief Virologist Wu Zunyou said people in China planning to travel during the upcoming National Day holiday do not need to take additional precautions against the coronavirus as the disease is no longer circulating in society. Currently, on the Chinese mainland, the virus can only be found in hospitalized patients, people placed under medical observation and laboratories, Wu, Chief Epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during an interview with China Central Television. “It is now impossible to contract the virus in social environments, including schools and workplaces,” he said.

This year’s National Day Holiday will run from October 1 to 8, one day longer than usual as it overlaps with the Mid-Autumn Festival, which also falls on October 1 this year. Tourist agencies have predicted a surge in domestic travel during the eight-day holiday as the outbreak has been suppressed in the country and most travel restrictions have been lifted. No new locally transmitted infections have been reported on the Chinese mainland for more than 30 consecutive days.

CanSino Biologics’ top scientist Zhu Tao said that its vaccine candidate for Covid-19 jointly developed by the company and military biomedical expert Chen Wei is generally safe and effective, and no serious adverse reactions that require medical attention have been reported. The Chinese recombinant adenovirus vector vaccine, Ad5-nCoV, uses a weakened and modified common cold virus as a vector to introduce parts of the genetic material of the novel coronavirus into the body, training it to recognize and fight off the disease. Zhu said the Ad5-nCoV is expected to provide two years of protection, and one dose is enough to trigger an adequate immune response.

China’s only nasal spray vaccine against the novel coronavirus is expected to start phase I clinical trials in November, and 100 volunteer recipients are being recruited, meaning that all five technical routes of vaccines against the disease that China has introduced will be in clinical trials. It is the only vaccine of its type approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration. China has approved 10 coronavirus vaccines for clinical trials. This nasal spray vaccine is a collaborative mission between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland that involves researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Xiamen University and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy. Leading microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong Yuen Kwok-yung told the Global Times that the vaccine simulates the natural infection pathway of respiratory viruses to activate the immune response. The nasal spray vaccination could generate double protection for vaccine recipients – influenza and the coronavirus. The nasal spray vaccine uses live attenuated influenza vaccine; the other four technical routes China is using to develop coronavirus vaccines are inactivated vaccines, adenoviral vector-based vaccines, and DNA and mRNA vaccines. The inactivated vaccine is estimated to be the earliest to be on the market.

Quarantine policies for international travelers to Shanghai with their final destination in neighboring Jiangsu, Zhejiang or Anhui provinces have changed. While the total length of quarantine for inbound passengers remains 14 days, people traveling to the three neighboring provinces and testing negative after three days of quarantine in Shanghai – instead of the previous seven days – will be transferred to their city of destination to finish the last 11 days of quarantine in designated places. Inbound travelers whose destination is within Shanghai are still allowed to do a seven-day hotel quarantine plus a seven-day home quarantine if they have a fixed residence in the city, a negative nucleic acid test on the fifth day of the hotel quarantine and mandatory home quarantine for those living in the same apartment.

Travelers from Belgium to China need to note that starting from September 2, the validity period of the negative Covid-19 test certificate was shortened from 5 to 3 days after its issuance for all passengers traveling from or transiting via Belgium to China. This means that travelers need to pass a test and obtain a negative certificate within three days before departure. Foreigners need to present the test result to the Chinese Embassy in Brussels to obtain a Health Certificate to be allowed to board the plane to China.