The following email was sent to US citizens in China today.
Reconsider travel to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws and COVID-19-related restrictions. Do not travel to the PRC’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Jilin province, and Shanghai municipality due to COVID-19-related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated. Reconsider travel to the PRC’s Hong Kong SAR due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws.
On April 08, 2022, the Department allowed for the voluntary departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees, and family members of emergency and non-emergency U.S. government employees, from the Consulate General Shanghai consular district due to a surge in COVID cases and the impact of restrictions related to the PRC’s response.
Read the Department of State’s COVID-19 page before you plan any international travel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 1 Travel Health Notice for the PRC and a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Hong Kong, due to COVID-19. Your risk of contracting COVID-19 and developing severe symptoms may be lower if you are fully vaccinated with an FDA approved or authorized vaccine. Before planning any international travel, please review the CDC’s specific recommendations for vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers.
The zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 by the PRC and Hong Kong governments severely impacts travel and access to public services. All travelers should prepare to quarantine at a government-designated location for a minimum of 14 days upon arrival. While in quarantine, health authorities will test travelers as often as daily for COVID-19 and will not permit travelers to leave their rooms. Travelers who test positive during this quarantine time will be transferred to a government-designated medical facility. Standards of care, accommodations, testing, and treatments may differ considerably from standards in the United States. Even after completing quarantine on-arrival, travelers to the PRC and Hong Kong may face additional quarantines and mandatory testing as well as movement and access restrictions, including access to medical services and public transportation. In some cases, children in Hong Kong who test positive have been separated from their parents and kept in isolation until they meet local hospital discharge requirements.
Travelers within the PRC and Hong Kong may be subject to mandatory testing. In areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases, restrictions may include being confined to home or moved to a government- designated quarantine facility or hospital. Visit the Embassy’s COVID-19 page for more information on COVID-19 and related restrictions and conditions in the PRC, or the Consulate General Hong Kong’s COVID-19 page for information on the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong as testing and travel requirements frequently change.
AC