Eased quarantine rules for Shanghai travelers vary across region

Several cities in the Yangtze River Delta region have announced easing of COVID-19 quarantine rules for travelers from Shanghai in varied ways.

A few cities in neighboring Jiangsu Province, including Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi, have categorized travelers from Shanghai into two groups – those from subdistricts or towns marked as medium- or high-risk for COVID-19 in the last 14 days, and the rest.

The former group of people is subject to seven-day central quarantine and seven days of self-health monitoring at home, while the latter group is able to move freely on arrival with four polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests within the first seven days, but with certain restrictions.

Similar rules are also applicable in Changzhou, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Huai'an and Taizhou cities in the province.

People have also been allowed to commute daily between Shanghai and Kunshan or Wuxi, but they have to take a PCR test every day.

Meanwhile, the rules in Zhejiang and Anhui provinces categorize travelers from Shanghai into three groups – those from subdistricts or towns with medium- or high-risk areas, those from other areas in the same district with the above-mentioned subdistricts or towns, and the rest.

The first group of people is subject to seven days of centralized quarantine upon arrival and a seven-day health monitoring period at home, while the second and third groups are required to monitor their health for seven days with a few obligatory PCR tests.

Similar restrictions of movement for Shanghai travelers are also in place in the two neighboring provinces.

The three-category rules have also been introduced by Chongchuan District of Nantong City in Jiangsu, but with variations in details.

Namely, visitors to the district who correspond to the second category defined by Zhejiang and Anhui will be subject to three days of central quarantine and four days of health monitoring at home before being able to move around, while those who travel from Shanghai districts with zero community cases in the past seven days will have to stay at home for three days upon arrival.