Early hopes that China would continue opening up foreigners entering the country has taken another hit with the announcement that citizens of the UK and Belgium would be temporarily banned from entering the country.

This follows the suspension of the issuing of Q1 and Q2 visas, which we announced a few days ago. You can read about that here.

According to an announcement from the Chinese embassies in both countries, foreign nationals traveling from either country will not be allowed entry into China. This applies to people of any nationality traveling from either county and includes those who have valid visas to enter China. Neither country will now be permitted to give “certified health declaration forms” either they went on to add.

In October, Belgium made international headlines when it asked doctors who had Covid-19 to continue treating patients due to how dire the situation was. As things currently stand, Belgium has the highest coronavirus infection rate in Europe.

The UK has not been faring much better, having recently had its highest ever death toll, as well as ordering another month-long lockdown on the country, one which may well end up extended over the Christmas period.

After initially announcing a swathe of measures which open a path to many people returning to China, there seems to have been a bit of a turnaround in policy of the last week, which has included many anecdotal stories of a number of people being denied boarding on flights to China, often without reason, and presumably without the expensive flights being refunded.

This coupled with the second wave that is currently crippling Europe and that constant wave that has not left the US, does not bode too well for those people wishing to head back to China.

As always, YPT will regularly update you as the situation changes.

Note: Since the publishing of this article both India and the Philippines have been added to the list. It is expected that more countries will follow.