China's COVID-19 policy keeps Japanese families apart ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics

China's COVID-19 policy ahead of the scheduled Beijing Winter Olympics in February next year has kept the Japanese families apart.

As China has been bolstering its "zero corona" policy ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, many Japanese workers in the capital, who have not returned to their home country for around two years, have remained cut off from their families, according to Kyodo News.

Earlier, China has tightly restricted the entry of accompanying family members of Japanese employees in a bid to prevent the intrusion of the novel coronavirus.

Even if such families can enter China, they must be quarantined at a designated facility for 21 days upon arrival in a city other than Beijing in the nation, with all direct flights between Japan and the capital suspended since March 2020, according to Kyodo News.

Further, Quarantined people are completely prohibited by the health authorities from stepping out of their room, making families with small children, who are practically bursting at the seams to play outdoors, shy away from visiting China.

Also, fears are also growing that the Beijing government may extend the mandatory quarantine period from 21 days as it tries to strengthen anti-virus measures after the first infection with the Omicron variant was confirmed in the mainland in December.

Meanwhile, when COVID-19 cases increased in Beijing after a week-long national holiday early in the month, the municipal authorities have called for residents including Japanese not to move out of the capital unless necessary.

In addition, the local government has banned people in regions where new infections have been identified from entering Beijing, while compelling visitors to the city to have a negative certificate of a PCR test taken within 48 hours, according to Kyodo News.

( With inputs from ANI )

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