Seems they have changed Macau quarantine to 5 days home monitoring with no centralized quarantine. Need to be in Macau for 3 days before you can leave. I guess this means you can spend 3 days in a hotel in Macau then go to the Mainland quarantine free. If so, I think the mainland will end quarantine sooner rather than later.

Seems like people are getting a lot sicker than over here though. A lot of fevers of up to 40C/whatever that is in F. I'm guessing the Chinese vaccine isn't working as well as Pfizer/Moderna.

Not only not as effective, but the great vaccination campaign was, what, 18 months ago? Any effectiveness would have dwindled by now.
My cousin's teenage kid had a fever of 40C, and all they could get was 1 pill of cold/fever medication from a friend from another province.

You should advise your cousin's kid to get Paxlovid (or whatever the Chinese licensee calls it).

I think the issue is that people can't even get ibuprofen. Paxlovid is even harder to get and costs like $500 out of pocket.

Luckily I was able to procure a bunch of Paxlovid in the US and will be bringing with me to China.

This.
Some were first selling it for ~RMB 3000, and it went even higher after that.

What about the link that someone posted in the wx group (I didn't try to buy, but it seemed legit)?

ETA: I do recall that you need to be confirmed positive in the system in order to purchase through the link in question. The same goes for pharmacies at hospitals, which certainly had sufficient stock when I left China, but that was just before the policy changes (and ensuing spike in infections).

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Hope everyone stays well if you are in China or in the process of returning to China. Not a lot of transparency in terms local cases and infection spread from PRC media and governent since the relaxation of Covid policy. A lof of rumors and Western media reporting seem to indicate worsening situation.

I have canceled my PRC trip until later in the Spring.

Stay Well!

You need to stay a minimum of 8 days (equal to the previous 5+3 regime) in Macau before you can enter China.

I'm not trying to defend the PRC here or anything else, but I recall this story from the Economist. With the usual caveats that I'm not a doctor/scientist nor can assure that the venerable publication hasn't been unduly influenced by the CCP, it does, at least, offer some hope that there is an element of protection similar to the mRNAs we've used in the West. Also, in my view, a more important focus isn't eliminating transmissibility, but rather allowing the inevitable spread to be adequately managed. In other words, we just need to reduce this to something we can live with, not unlike the seasonal flu. And, thus far, there is considerable evidence here in the West that these vaccines should be able to accomplish just that.

Of course, I'm not suggesting how the PRC or the Chinese people should handle this once in a lifetime pandemic, but after three years of this pro-longed suffering, I suspect we all just want to find an acceptable way to move forward, and return to living life and enjoying prosperity.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-de...s-mrna-vaccine

The above article dated April 19, 2022 is behind a paywall, I believe, but I do have a subscription.

Yeah, I haven't booked anything yet, but my plan is/was to return around early to mid-March.
But that may unfortunately coincide with the third wave of infection, so I may push it back by a few weeks.
I reckon by the time we go back, things will be a LOT easier than they were before though (no or less quarantine; cheaper flights, etc.), so that's a plus.

So we�ve gone from pack your own food supply for quarantine to pack your own panadol?

Yeah, pretty much.
You'll be everyone's friend right now if you have a stash of Tylenol/Paracetamol/Panadol and/or Ibuprofen.

Unfortunately you need to do both at the moment.

Although I did see some news today of Chengdu going to 2+3 for international arrivals.

Vaccine-induced antibodies from the ancestral vaccine against Omicron drop to effectively nil about 6-8 months after your 3rd shot (first booster). I got infected, probably in the SFO Centurion lounge, when I took off my N95 mask for all of 7-9 minutes to eat dinner, back at the end of June/beginning of July (last booster at that time was November 2021).