Family reunites in China after 3-year Covid separation

Chu Wenhong would fly back to Shanghai and visit her parents at least once a year after she moved to Singapore in 1994. But she hasn’t been able to do so in the past three years due to China’s signature zero-Covid policy, which involved mass PCR testing, city-wide lockdowns and quarantining all inbound arrivals, including overseas Chinese like Chu. The last time the 54-year-old lab worker visited her hometown was in Nov. 2019, one month before the world’s first Covid outbreak was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. But Chu snatched a ticket last month to fly back after China announced it would end quarantine on all inbound travellers from Jan.8, marking the final unravelling of the country’s zero-Covid policy. “Finally, I can go back. I have been waiting for this day for a long time,” Chu said from her Singapore home after packing her suitcase on Wednesday, the night before her flight. The removal of inbound quarantine prompted a surge in demand for plane tickets in countries like Singapore which have large communities of overseas Chinese. Singapore resident Chu paid 2,264 Singapore dollars (around $1,700) for a one way ticket to Shanghai, while a return journey used to cost her around 600 Singapore dollars before the pandemic. However, in the absence of a long quarantine, it was still a price she was willing to pay in order to spend with her family over the Lunar New Year holiday that starts on Jan. 21. The holiday is especially important to Chinese families as it is often the only time of the year when relatives, distant and close, reunite and spend time with each other. China had imposed inbound quarantines on all arrivals from outside its borders since March 2020. The measure discouraged business travel into China and kept families separated for years, as it involved paying to stay inside a hotel room for two to three weeks. And even for those willing to endure the hotel quarantine, flights were often unavailable or overpriced as Bei