Cases of people coming to China with forged COVID-19 test reports have occasionally happened this year, inconveniencing China’s epidemic prevention and control work.

In the face of sporadic imported positive cases, Chinese authorities have recently tightened requirements for passengers flying in from several countries and regions

including the US and the UK, where the pandemic remains serious or is worsening.

China’s stricter inspection on entrants’ COVID-19 test results has to some extent curbed the chaos of falsified test reports.

Harder to ‘muddle through’

Passengers flying in with fake COVID-19 test reports seem more difficult to muddle through after many overseas Chinese embassies

and consulates successively made stricter requirements on their test results.

The Chinese embassy and consulates in the US, for instance, announced last week it would only accept test results from laboratory

institutions that are on a list issued by them. IgM serum antibody tests are required to be performed through venous blood sampling only,

and nucleic acid test reports must specify the sampling methods, they said.

A green-color health code with an “HS” mark, which reflects the passenger’s nucleic acid and serologic test reports and was approved by local Chinese embassies or consulates, is now a prerequisite for boarding flights, several domestic and foreign airlines told.

“Airport personnel check the health code of the passengers flying to China during the check-in,” said staffers with Air China. “Only those with a correct health code are allowed to board,” a Finnair employee said.

A sales director with Juneyao Airlines told that Juneyao’s passengers returning to China must show their health code at least twice – when printing the boarding pass and at the boarding gate.

The phenomenon of falsifying COVID-19 test reports has recently decreased, thanks to tightened inspections. Some overseas Chinese citizens in countries including the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Russia that they haven’t heard of such wrongdoings happening in their communities in the past couple of weeks.

“It’s very strict now, do not take chances.”

China has explicitly banned forging COVID-19 test results, said legal experts. The coronavirus patients who entered China with fake reports, though currently receiving medical treatment, will “very likely face justice through the legal system after recovery,” said Meng Bo, a Beijing-based criminal lawyer.

Source:globaltimes