Asia gives ‘lax’ Europeans a taste of their own medicine

Absorbed with her phone on a $10 bus between Cambodia and Vietnam, Fiona Morgan initially did not realise the vehicle had stopped at a remote border crossing.

As passengers disembarked, they were split up – Asian travellers on one side; Westerners on the other – where they were told that Europeans were no longer permitted to cross into Vietnam due to new coronavirus restrictions.

As confusion reigned, Ms Morgan, a 27-year-old backpacker from Australia, said the bus driver “came over and showed us a list of countries that were no longer being allowed through”.

She also noticed two British tourists had been separated from the group.

“They’d seen someone be quarantined and they weren’t sure what was happening to them,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to the British travellers in the end, they were still roped off by the time I left.” While her Australian passport granted her entry into Vietnam, all others barred and told to return to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

The drama at a deserted south-east Asian land border a few days ago illustrates how the tables are turning against European citizens whose governments are increasingly viewed in Asia – now gaining some control over the virus – as having done too little, too late to contain the pandemic.

After Chinese and other Asian travellers have endured months of suspicion of being carriers of the virus, which originated in Wuhan, central China, it is now Europeans who are viewed as vectors of the respiratory disease in other parts of the world. “Europe is the new China,” said Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centre for Disease Control, on Thursday.

China is stepping up checks on travellers arriving in the country, as infections via travellers coming from the UK, Italy and Iran have gone up while locally transmitted cases have begun to subside. This week, China reported as low as eight new cases a day, compared with a month ago when at one point the country was finding thousands of infections daily.

Beijing authorities this week asked foreigners in particular to cut back on travel and to wear masks outside. Officials ordered anyone entering China to quarantine for 14 days.

Those landing at Beijing’s main airport are now being shuttled to an exhibition centre for health checks, to record personal details and travel history and register with neighbourhood watch committees. Those without symptoms are allowed to self-quarantine at home for 14 days, while those displaying symptoms will be sent for virus testing at a hospital.

If a traveller later tests positive, those on the same flight could be required to move to a quarantine facility, even if they are asymptomatic.

The new regulations are a significant modification of previous rules when the authorities were more focused on catching people from

“high-risk” countries like Italy.

In Shanghai, the authorities require arriving passengers who have been in South Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran, France, Spain, Germany and the US to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Authorities are also cracking down on those who fail to report their health status and travel history. Police are investigating a group of six confirmed with the virus who allegedly failed to report their travel through Italy.

Europeans are facing a surge of travel restrictions elsewhere in Asia.

Vietnam, which saw a spike in cases last week after 13 passengers on a flight from Heathrow tested positive, was one of the first Asian nations this week to suspend visas on arrival for citizens from the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Public resentment against the UK’S perceived lax procedures is also rising, and worsened after reports emerged of a Briton on the same flight refusing to be quarantined.

Thailand has also tightened its visa procedures and its health minister urged visitors to “defer their trip” if they have “no critical need” to come.

South Korea has said that starting tomorrow, strict quarantine measures will apply to entrants from Germany, Spain, Britain and the Netherlands.

“A lot of Asian countries, especially Vietnam, have been really good. We get text message updates; there’s guys going around in vans with speakers giving updates in Vietnamese,” said Ms Morgan. “They’ve been really good at keeping it contained, whereas I think in some other countries have been saying ‘this is fine, we’re going to let it happen’, and now they are realising, but it’s too late.”

‘I think some other countries have been saying ‘this is fine, we’re going to let it happen’, and now ... it’s too late’