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Airport health checks extend waiting time

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-05 07:39

Passengers entering the country through Beijing Capital International Airport may need to brace themselves for an additional half an hour to go through tightened quarantine procedures against A(H1N1) influenza.

Yesterday afternoon, not a peak time for arrivals, each queue of international passengers waiting at the eight check points at Terminal 3 was longer than 10 m.

"Usually it takes about 5 minutes for 300 passengers to pass border quarantine, but now it takes at least half a minute for each passenger to complete the procedure, excluding the time waiting in the queue," Wang Yang, an officer at the airport's inspection and quarantine bureau, said.

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Starting last weekend, all passengers entering the mainland have had to complete a health declaration form and hand it to quarantine officers.

They need to fill in their names, passport numbers, flight numbers, contacts and travel history as well as whether they have any flu symptoms.

At the quarantine gates, officers check the forms to make sure the names and passport numbers are right.

"The information could be vital if we need to trace anyone, so we require passengers to fill in all items in the form," Wang said.

But many fail to do so, and have to fill them in at the gate.

"That takes time," he said.

Before handing in their forms, passengers' body temperatures are checked by infrared machines. If the temperature is higher than 37 C, officers question the passenger to decide whether to place him or her in an isolation room.

There, a doctor conducts checks and, if necessary, the passenger is transferred to a designated hospital.

Wang said more than 10 passengers were sent to hospital on Sunday for suspected symptoms.

Some passengers appeared impatient while waiting in the queue yesterday, but most said the measures are understandable.

"If it's for safety reasons, I think the measures are necessary," said Alex Arktos, a Malaysian who flew from Washington DC and had to wait for more than 20 minutes to pass the gate.

"If it has to be, it has to be," said Bob Seibel, an American from Boston who spent roughly the same time waiting in the queue.

Both said everything appeared normal during their flights and nobody wore masks.

However, Arktos said it would be better if the quarantine procedures were more efficient, for example, "with more officers or channels".

But a quaranine official said the staff were already working overtime.

Cai Bing said he started working at 9 am yesterday and would not finish until 9 am today. "One shift is 24 hours," he said. "We're so busy that some of us even don't have time to have meals."