COVID-19: Beijing to make international travellers to pay for quarantine

In wake of the imported coronavirus cases rising in the country, Beijing is set to make the international travellers who will be quarantined for 14 days to stay at their own expense, a city official announced on Sunday (March 15) afternoon.

Imported cases in China, to date, were recorded at 16 out of the 20 newly emerged cases with the other four reported from Wuhan city in the Chinese province of Hubei.

With 10 new deaths, 3199 people have now died in China with 80844 infected, the national health commission (NHC) said on Sunday.

Related news: Global death toll due to coronavirus pandemic crosses 6,000

Even as the number of new cases being reported has fallen drastically this month with 16 cities in Hubei apart from Wuhan recording zero cases for 10 consecutive days, the cities have stepped up the measures to control new imported cases.

According to a report in the Beijing News, starting Monday (March 16), everybody coming to Beijing from abroad will be directly sent to a central quarantine facility and kept under observation for 14 days, said Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of the Beijing municipal government.

“Some people were asymptomatic when they arrived in Beijing but were confirmed with the disease several days later when symptoms showed,” said Chen as reported by Beijing News.

Interactive: Know the coronavirus stats here

The report also mentioned that passengers who do not disclose their medical and travel history could be penalised.

Central health authorities reported 16 new imported cases of the coronavirus, five of them in Beijing, taking the total to 111, of which 47 are from Iran, and 35 from Italy.

As per a report by news agency Xinhua, all international flights coming to the new Daxing airport have been rerouted to land at the older Beijing Capital airport, where the passengers will be screened and monitored.