By Chris Paul Otaigbe
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that is now taking the number of confirmed cases, globally, to the two million mark with deaths just few body-bags away from the 100,000 dead end, is reported to have burst forth from Wuhan, China.
The virus, which hit China like a lethal sledge hammer, saw the country groan under the health care pressure of managing over 81, 000 cases and mourning over three thousand Chinese lives lost to the pandemic.
At the time it began in Wuhan, it was just a China problem and so the rest of the world practically isolated and distanced themselves from China and almost anything Chinese. Seeing that the dreaded virus was not only sucking up the lives of its citizenry but drawing blood from its precious economy, the Chinese government went at the pandemic with all its might.
Luckily, the government provided the leadership that effectively pushed the virus away from its shores to have a filled day elsewhere. And so, from the over 80,000 cases and close to four thousand deaths, the Chinese now record less than 100 cases and deaths in single, at worst in double digits. It has become obvious to the government that these new cases were imported onto its soil by foreigners coming into the country.
The table has turned. The Chinese now has to be careful of who and how it allows into the country.
Consequently, China is building a fortress against coronavirus. One that extends beyond its borders and Tom Cheshire, a Sky News Reporter with his crew decided to do a documentary on the process foreigners, coming into China, have to go through to be granted entry into the country.
Earlier in that week the Chinese government announced it would ban all foreigners from entering its country in 24 hours’ time. This policy puts Tom, who lives in China, under pressure to run back home in Beijing.
The fortress, which begins with an extremely thorough passenger screening at all entry points into the Asian country, is felt the most at the Airports.
A temperature checking device is pointed at Passengers intending to travel and your temperature has to be below 37 degrees before you are allowed to board. The checking continues at every turn throughout the flight, pre-boarding and in-flight. For the Sky News Reporter, flying to another country has now become like traveling to another galaxy.
As you board the plane, right from the entrance, you meet unidentified individuals in personal protective apparel all covered up from their heads to toe. “These are not health workers. They are Cabin Crew.” he said.
Mid-flight, these guys who look like they are gate keepers of a location somewhere in Planet Mars or Neptune, approach you again to check your temperature.
The plane lands in a state in North East China. As Passengers make their way into the arrival hall, Customs officials in full PPE apparel check your temperature. At another part of the airport lounge, another army of officials in full medical armor engage you with another type of screening. It is a necessary anti-covid-19 security check to protect the capital Beijing, which hundreds of miles away and be sure it is kept safe.
Every passenger is tested at every point inside the Arrival hall for Covid-19. In one of the seclusions made for the screening, the passenger is asked to sit down while a temperature-check with a stick-like medical instrument made of glass is thrusted into the mouth and taking all the way to the back of the tongue and the back of the nose for a thorough swabbing. It is as uncomfortable as imagined.
Luckily for the Sky News crew, they made it to the Chinese soil four hours before the ban on foreigners came into effect.
Nothing is taking for granted. Even at the waiting lounge, Passengers are made to sit according to their seating positions inside the plane. The number of your seat number is pasted both on the Lounge seat as well as your arm as a form of identification.
An elaborate but impressive process, the Beijing-bound flight had to rescreen the Passengers to be sure no one caught the virus during the first half of the flight. So, what that means is that whoever tests positive to the various screenings would have to be taken off the flight and quarantined for the full gamut of the covid-19 isolation, treatment and management process to swing into full gear on the detected Passenger.
While waiting for other procedures, Passengers are given a meal and told to sit apart. The Chinese takes the screenings very seriously and as such leaves nothing to chance.
This national paranoia is so high, anything can happen at anytime and government policy can change in a second and it can meet you anywhere. This met the Sky News Crew at the arrrival lounge. Tom and his Crew along with their fellow Passengers were told they would not be travelling to Beijing again.
One of the officials in the full medical armor, flanked by another official who is clothed in civilian wears wearing a face mask, came to make the announcement that the government has made a new policy which has obviously affected their flight. Now, they would have to wait for the result of the Test they undertook during the various checks.
So, they would not be going to Beijing for now. Instead, they are bussed to a hotel, that is requisitioned by the Chinese State, where they would be quarantine for two weeks.
Even at the hotel, passengers are made to stand within certain demarcations marked with colored tapes or paints as they turn to book their Rooms which they paid for with their own money. The floor markings are for the purpose of observing the social distancing rule.
The hotel rates included three meals per day which are left outside the door to the room of occupants.
Inside the less than forty pounds sterling per night room of the hotel, is enough comfort to keep you relaxed while you wait for the result of the covid-19 test.
Fortunately for the crew, the result of the test arrived the next day and they were all negative.
Tom said government’s inaction, indifference and inadequate preparation was what caused the level of impact that hit the country from the virus, initially. Now, that it has succeeded in combating it, it has done everything possible to prevent such a scourge on its soil ever again.
As Tom puts it, to the Chinese, corona virus is now a foreign menace “and it is prepared to do everything keep it at bay…” he concluded.
