China’s coronavirus quarantine threatens supply chains as ‘vulnerable’ seamen forced to endure weeks of isolation

Beijing’s harsh quarantine measures are forcing hundreds of thousands of Chinese seafarers to endure weeks of isolation before they can go home

As seamen look to return for the Lunar New Year holiday, the strict rules are threatening to cause supply chain disruptions in the Pearl River Delta

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China’s strict quarantine rules are threatening to cause supply chain disruptions in the Pearl River Delta. Photo: AP

Published: 2:00pm, 26 Dec 2021

Spending months at sea is part of the job for Chinese crewmen like Geng, but as the coronavirus pandemic drastically alters the way people move around the world, the stretches away from home are getting longer and longer.

After finishing a seven-month contract in late October and disembarking at the Egyptian seaport of Suez, Geng, who only gave his surname, is still in quarantine one and a half months later.

“Two more weeks to go,” he said recently from his third and final hotel room stay in his hometown in Hebei province.

Before this, it was 19 days in isolation in Egypt, followed by two weeks in the city of Chengdu, when he first arrived in China. Even when he finishes his latest quarantine, he will not be able to leave the family home for seven more days, as China has some of the strictest Covid-19 controls in the world.

Some 800km away in Shenyang, a city in northeastern China, second mate Hu Cheng has also just started another stint of hotel quarantine after two weeks stuck in Tianjin, where he got off a bulk carrier shuttling across Asia, after nearly eight months at sea. He is looking forward to leaving the hotel, but knows he too has another week’s home isolation to follow.

Being confined for weeks on end in tiny hotel rooms after months at sea is the new reality for hundreds of thousands of Chinese seafarers on international routes this year.

China’s coronavirus quarantine threatens supply chains as ‘vulnerable’ seamen forced to endure weeks of isolation

Beijing’s harsh quarantine measures are forcing hundreds of thousands of Chinese seafarers to endure weeks of isolation before they can go home As seamen look to return for the Lunar New Year holiday, the strict rules are threatening to cause supply chain disruptions in the Pearl River Delta

Beijing’s harsh quarantine measures are forcing hundreds of thousands of Chinese seafarers to endure weeks of isolation before they can go home

As seamen look to return for the Lunar New Year holiday, the strict rules are threatening to cause supply chain disruptions in the Pearl River Delta