With all of the attention paid to the Virus, testing and vaccines, the reality of foreign travel indicates an opposite scenario..
In the past week I flew from KM to Guangzhou to Los Angeles, and from LA to Istanbul..
At no time during this odyssey was I asked to present a Covid-test or proof of vaccination, customs form or regional travel documents..
This is only my recent experience, but all of the travel could have been accomplished with only a passport..
Happy travels, and best wishes from Istanbul..
A lot of mileage in one week. Returning to Mainland China, if and when, may turn hairy.
Could it be that lot more data (compared to decade or more ago) is interlinked in IT systems and connected to the passport?
@JanJal:
Were this the case, the EU / US wouldn't be thinking of the new medical-certified travel passports..
Life outside of Asia is too dysfunctional for them to have already incorporated our medical data into our passports, don't you imagine?
The lack of interest concerning the pandemic was a real eye-opener during my recent travel..
@duke
It may depend on the destination country. Canada requires a covid test prior to boarding, but I've not heard of whether that is checked at this end or the other.
I do know they're looking for it on arrival.
In your case you were not really "arriving" in America, but just transiting.
They may have allowed you to just pass through and get out of their way.
@ AlPage48
I suppose that you will have to find out personally how Canada handles it..
Neither KM or Guangzhou checked anything.. America did not know that I was in transit; I was in L.A. 4 days re-booking a cancelled flight and being re-tested after the 3-day lapse.. Finally got them out of my way..
Turkey, also being hard-hit, didn't check, even when issuing a visa..
The hype was simply not matching the reality..
Canada now requires quarantine on arrival in a secure facility, and it's not free.
$2,000 for 3 days.
After that still need to complete 14 days quarantine.
News this weekend is that provincial borders are being closed.
That leaves my brother stranded in Edmonton away from his home in Ontario, but he's actually ok with that.
When I went to Chongqing from Kunming last week I had to pass 2 health checks on the way out of Kunming and a third on arrival in Chongqing.
I expected much the same on my return but was only checked in Kunming.
Strangely, though, when entering the subway at the airport I had to pass the same test needed to get into the airport building in the first place.
@Al Page48
Good to see Canada responding in a practical manner.. I don't know what to say about the Americans.. Given the potent-cannabis nature of LA's air, maybe they don't know either?
China will be stricter for incoming & internal travel, but a quarantine for negative-testers seems to be over-the-top.. The temperature-gun is hardly a verified health-check, compared with test results..
When I was waved through both American & Turkish passport control, I then showed them my testing documents, and asked why nobody was checking?
No response ..
Quote: “The lack of interest concerning the pandemic was a real eye-opener”.
Well not to me. You can see a clear correlation between taking it serious and having things under control (China, DPRK, New Zealand, and Australia) and those not taking it not serious (Brazil, India, USA and many others) where things are out of control.
For Europe the restrictions are mainly to keep new variants out which are mainly popping up there where there is a large chance of mutations and that is there where there are many cases. A possible vaccine resistant strain can ruin all your vaccination progress and therefor Europe has a travel ban on Brazil.
Turkey had 58,000 and the USA 70,000 positive tests yesterday so a plane load of travellers does not make much difference.
@ lemon lover
Sure, that is what is wild, the on-going mutations, and when will it end?
They can only control the spread through strict travel control..
The lack of interest I witnessed was just my recent experience, including outbound China..
