Chinese people have a saying; “Pandemics Take 3 Years” (大疫三年). Well, yesterday, 5 December, marked 3 years to the day since the very first case of COVID in the world was discovered in Wuhan, catapulting the city into the international spotlight.
Fitting, therefore, that yesterday was the day chosen by Nanjing Public Transport to announce that it is no longer required to produce evidence of a negative result to a COVID test performed in the previous 48 hours in order to take the Metro.
Staff at Cuiping Shan Metro Station on Line S1 told The Nanjinger earlier today that the news became effective immediately following its announcement yesterday afternoon.
Specifically, Nanjing Public Transport said on its official Weibo account that the lifting of the requirement applies not only to the Metro, but also buses, ferries and other forms of public transport, such as the city’s two urban trams.
But it’s still not as easy as just getting on the train. Instead of the COVID-test report, all passengers taking the Metro are required to scan the location code and present the resulting green code to station staff at the security check. A health code and travel code will not be requested.
The Nanjinger can also confirm that it was able to enter a government building yesterday morning after being asked only for a green health and travel code.
The news means that Nanjing has joined 20 other cities in China to have lifted the NAT-report requirement for their public transportation systems over the past 4 days, reports The Paper.
For the record, the others are Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Harbin, Jiaxing, Jinhua, Kunming, Nanchang, Nanning, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shaoxing, Shenzhen, Taizhou, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Wuhan and Zhengzhou.
In Nanjing, the 48-hour-COVID-test-result requirement to ride public transport was introduced on 8 October, after authorities gave the travelling public less than 24-hours notice, as this publication reported at the time.
While yesterday’s move is certainly another small step towards the light at the end of the tunnel, questions remain. Biggest of all, perhaps is, will the 3 year anniversary of the Wuhan lockdown finally be the day China lifts quarantine requirements for those arriving from overseas?