Beijing’s CDC Addresses Hotel Quarantine Confusion for Families

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During Sunday’s COVID-19 press conference, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sought to address the growing anxiety facing families who are required to quarantine in separate hotel rooms upon their return to China.

According to data collected from clusters of infections, it was found that family members who had close contact with a COVID-19 carrier are more than five times as likely to contract the disease, when compared with those who had minimal exposure to an infected person in public. Likewise, the rate of transmission amongst family members is 17%, while transmission in other social settings has hovered around 3%.

Put another way, the overwhelming majority of new infections, up to 86%, are occurring in family clusters, with seven being the largest number of infections to hit a single family unit thus far.

All of this comes as expats and locals continue flying in from other parts of the world, and China has imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine period on returnees, the vast majority of which are taking place in government-sanctioned hotels.

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Given that the rate of infections amongst family clusters is alarmingly high, Beijing’s CDC has restricted the number of people allowed in any given hotel room. Adults and kids over 15 years old are placed in separate rooms, while one parent with a kid under 15 will be allowed to room together.

For those families who have younger kids, it is possible for one parent to apply for home quarantine while the other hunkers down in a hotel, however this is still contingent upon which country the family is flying in from, and approval from their local community. For instance, a family flying in from Italy, one of the hardest hit areas of Europe, would find it difficult to be granted a home quarantine. Additionally, it was not explicitly stated what age group is eligible for the at-home quarantine exemption.

Being separated from loved ones will be tough on any family, and as with all things COVID-19, the decision to place families in different hotel rooms is not one that Beijing’s CDC made lightly. However given the facts and figures surrounding rates and methods of transmission, measures such as this are imperative if China is to mitigate the rise of new infections, and keep families healthy and safe in the long run.

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Photos: Unsplash

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