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Chinese jubilant, plan trips abroad as inbound COVID quarantine set to end

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2 years ago

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by Matthew Walsh

BEIJING, CHINA — Chinese reacted with joy and rushed to book flights overseas Tuesday after Beijing said it would scrap mandatory COVID quarantine for overseas arrivals, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation.In a snap move late Monday, China said from 8 January inbound travellers would no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival, in a further unwinding of hardline COVID-19 controls that had torpedoed its economy and sparked nationwide protests.

Chinese social media users reacted with joy to the end of restrictions that have kept the country largely closed off to the outside world since March 2020.

“It’s over… spring is coming,” said one top-voted comment on the Twitter-like Weibo social media site.

Online searches for flights abroad surged on the news, state media reported, with the travel platform Tongcheng seeing an 850 per cent jump in searches and a tenfold jump in inquiries about visas.

“Preparing for my trip abroad!” one Weibo user wrote.

“I hope the price of the return ticket doesn’t rise again!” another said.

The new rules follow China’s decision this month to roll back much of a zero-COVID regime that had mandated mass testing, strict lockdowns and long quarantines in government-run facilities.

Cases have surged nationwide following that easing, in an outbreak that authorities have admitted is now “impossible” to track.

And in the face of mounting concerns that the country’s wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics, Beijing’s National Health Commission (NHC) Saturday said it would no longer publish daily tallies of the number of cases.

That followed a decision last week to narrow the criteria by which COVID-19 fatalities were counted — a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.

‘Protect themselves’

The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays next month, in which millions of people are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives.

Hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with COVID patients and victims, with studies estimating around one million people could die over the next few months.

Major cities are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.

Beijing has insisted throughout the wave of infections that the country is prepared to weather the storm — and urged people to take responsibility for their own health.

“We need the public to properly protect themselves, continue to cooperate with the implementation of relevant prevention and control measures,” Liang Wannian, an epidemiologist and the head of an expert group at the NHC tasked with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, told the state news agency Xinhua.

“We need to shift the focus of our work from infection prevention and control to medical treatment.”

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

Published

1 year ago

on

26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

Published

1 year ago

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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