Travel Guidance during CNY 2021

Spring Festival, China’s weeklong holiday for Lunar New Year, has been the most important public holiday for Chinese citizens as millions of people will return to their hometowns for family reunion, constituting a large annual human migration called as “Chunyun” in Chinese. The holiday season or traveling period of this migration lasts 40 days this year, starting from January 28, 2021 and ending on March 8, 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 resurgence in some parts of the country, Chinese governments are encouraging people to stay put during this year’s approaching holiday season.

Travel Restrictions during Holiday Season

People from areas of different risk levels¹ are subject to different travel restrictions and requirements during this holiday season. Briefly speaking, with a few exceptions², people from low-risk areas, with their individual “green health pass codes”, can generally travel freely within the same provinces or “cities” (as opposed to “rural areas”) of other provinces in China during the holiday season. To go to the “rural areas” of other provinces in China, however, people from low-risk areas are required to bring with them reports showing the negative results of COVID-19 tests undertaken in the past seven days and would be also subject to 14 days’ at-home health monitoring period³. Besides, these people should inform local village committees of their visits before their arrivals and take COVID-19 tests on their 7th and 14th days after arrival.

On the other hand, people living at medium-risk and high-risk areas or travelling from such areas in the past 14 days will face a lot of difficulty to travel during this holiday season⁴.

Notwithstanding the above, individuals are highly recommended to confirm the detailed requirements with the local communities of their destinations before their departure, as local practice may vary slightly.

What this means to employers?

1. As there have been new confirmed cases in various locations in China since last October, employers should consider reminding employees the risk of travel (especially for pure tourism purposes) during this holiday season. This is particularly important for employers who have a large population that cannot work remotely. Some employers are considering giving incentives to those that stay during the holiday season.
2. Employers may consider asking employees about their holiday travel plans and potentially the COVID-19 test results (upon their return, depending on their specific travel destinations) to ensure business continuity and workplace safety after the holiday season. To achieve this, however, employers are recommended to give sufficient notification to the employees (such as the purpose, use and disclosure of the data collected) and obtain explicit consent of employees to be in compliance with applicable data privacy laws.
3. Employers are recommended to remind the employees that in case they cannot return to the office on time, they should notify their supervisor immediately and apply for using their paid annual leave in the interim, unless they are permitted to work remotely. Although employers have the legal right to arrange for employees to take paid annual leave based on their business and operational situations, sending such reminder in advance would help reduce potential disputes and complaints.

¹ China has been assigning different risk levels (i.e., high-risk, medium-risk and low-risk) for areas throughout the country.
² Where “key groups of people” in the low-risk areas, such as those working at the imported cold-chain food industry, working at ports that have direct contacts with imported goods, and working at the government designated quarantine places, etc., do need to travel, they should receive negative COVID-19 test results within the past seven days, and would be subject to the 14 days’ at-home health monitoring period (as discussed below) if going to the rural areas (whether of the same provinces or not).
³ The 14-day at-home health monitoring period refers to a 14-day “home observation” period to monitor temperature daily. Unlike “at-home quarantine”, during the period, individuals are still allowed to leave their home for daily routines but should avoid mass gatherings. Based on our consultations with several rural areas in China, it seems that if a person stays less than 14 days, then the 14-day at-home health monitoring period can be shortened accordingly, in which case the person may not need to do the 14th day’s or both the 7th day’s and 14th day’s COVID-19 tests.
⁴ Where people living at medium-risk areas or travelling from such areas in the past 14 days do need to travel during this holiday season, they must obtain approvals from the local epidemic prevention and control headquarters and also receive negative COVID-19 test results within the past 72 hours. In addition, people staying at the prefectural-level cities (“地级市” in Chinese) where medium-risk or high-risk areas are located must receive negative COVID-19 test results within the past seven days to travel, and would be also subject to the 14 days’ at-home health monitoring period if going to the rural areas (whether of the same provinces or not).