"How can I get out without a nucleic acid test?" - Confusion in Xianning over leaving and tests needed

Record ID: 1465911

  • Title: "How can I get out without a nucleic acid test?" - Confusion in Xianning over leaving and tests needed
  • Date: 26th March 2020
  • Summary: XIANNING, HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA (MARCH 26, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LINING UP OUTSIDE OF THE XIANNING CENTRAL HOSPITAL, MANY WAITING TO GET A NUCLEIC TEST (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) WOMAN TRYING TO GET BACK TO WORK IN CHENGDU, HE TING, SAYING: "Now I'll need a nucleic test and a health certificate to go out. Also, I'll need a receiving letter (from my destination). There was no requirement for the nucleic test before yesterday. It started yesterday." NURSES HANDING OUT FORMS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAITING, FILLING FORMS WITH MASKS ON PEOPLE GETTING INTO HOSPITAL PEOPLE GETTING INTO HOSPITAL, SIGN ABOVE DOOR READING (Chinese): "FEVER CLINIC" (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 51-YEAR-OLD MAN WORKING FOR A COMPANY IN SHANGHAI, SHEN JIANNING, SAYING: "We came here at 4 a.m. Now the doctor said they've stopped doing nucleic tests. How can I get out without a nucleic acid test? I can't even get on a bus, not even with a ticket. The government doesn't care about us. The hospital doesn't allow checks." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING OUTSIDE OF COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE, XIANNING YONGAN HEALTH SERVICE CENTER VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC ON ROAD VARIOUS OF TWINS WEARING MASKS WOMAN KNITTING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LOCAL RESIDENT FROM XIANNING, CHEN, SAYING: "When the city re-opens, everyone who was at home for two months will get to come out. When there are too many people out there, I'm afraid that infections will surface again. So it (re-opening) has both pros and cons." WOMAN IN WHEELCHAIR PEOPLE SHOPPING IN MARKET MAN CUTTING PORK WOMEN IN MARKET VARIOUS OF MAN FIXING BIKE
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2020 04:32
  • Keywords: China Hubei Hubei province people arriving people leaving re-opening traffic travellers
  • Location: XIANNING, HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA
  • City: XIANNING, HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Health/Medicine,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001C6OSOQV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: People in Xianning who queued outside of a hospital and health centre on Thursday (March 26) expressed confusion and frustration as they tried to get a test the Chinese government has said people need before they can travel out of Hubei province.
    About 30 people were in a line outside Xianning Central Hospital when Reuters visited, including Shen Jianning, 51, who said he arrived at the hospital around 4 a.m., and had waited three hours for a nucleic acid test only to be told by a doctor that they were no longer doing the tests there.
    "How can I get out without a nucleic acid test? I can't even get on a bus, not even with a ticket. The government doesn't care about us. The hospital doesn't allow checks," he said.
    Shen has been stuck in the city for two months after travelling to the city on Jan. 26 to inspect a house he bought. He usually works in Shanghai, as a supervisor on one of the city's metro projects, and said his boss is keen for him to return to work as soon as possible.
    Signs posted at the hospital instructed people to get the tests done at district or community health centres, but that did not stop people from trying to get them at the central hospital amid confusion over where the tests could be done.
    "Now I'll need a nucleic test and a health certificate to go out," said He Ting who failed to get a test at Xianning Central Hospital and has been caught in the city since coming back to celebrate the Lunar New Year. She is trying to return to her job in Chengdu.
    "There was no requirement for the nucleic test before yesterday. It started yesterday," she added.
    Over at the Xianning Yongan Health Service Centre, a community health centre, over a hundred people milled in and around the gates, with a long line of people clutching queue numbers. Some told Reuters they were told the results would take a day or two.
    Elsewhere in Xianning, life is slowly returning to normal, with residents carrying out their daily errands at local fruit and vegetable shops. Hairdressers and bike repair shops were also open. A group of women sat outside a shuttered shop, playing with a pair of 2-year-old twin boys, who were wearing masks.
    The lifting of the lockdown "has both pros and cons," said one of the women, who gave her name as Chen. "When the city re-opens, everyone who was at home for two months will get to come out. When there are too many people out there, I'm afraid that infections will surface again."
    Hubei province, home to some 60 million people, reported no new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday (March 25) and opened its borders. The lockdown of Hubei's capital Wuhan, where the virus first appeared late last year, will be lifted on April 8.
    (Production: Thoms Suen)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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