I couldn’t believe it anymore when it suddenly appeared on my phone. It was even more beautiful than I imagined, a soft soft green, with a little animation that made it shine. I rushed to make a screenshot of it for fear that it would fly away.
Much has been said in recent weeks about the health rules that will apply to the Beijing Winter Games and in particular the fear that too low sensitivity thresholds will cause an epidemic of false positives in athletes’ COVID-19 tests. The thresholds were finally raised to the level of international standards, but the conditions to be met if only to have the right to enter the Olympic bubble remained just as numerous and tedious.
In addition to the usual name, home address, passport number, accreditation number, return flight plan and hotel address, it was necessary in particular to produce documentary evidence of the vaccines received, the negative results of tests carried out at most 96 hours and 72 hours before departure and having reported daily before that his body temperature and the evolution of his general state of health on a digital platform. If unfortunately you had contracted COVID-19 no more than two weeks before departure, you also had to document this episode, produce up to three other negative tests and submit a solemn declaration of transparency and honesty in the hope that it will come back with the right stamp.
All this information and documents had to be transmitted to the Chinese health authorities through an application which acknowledged receipt of your submission by issuing an orange barcode. If the file was accepted, the barcode had to turn green and then serve as a safe-conduct at the airport and at Chinese customs. This quest for the green barcode had become the main concern of the last few days in addition to the usual last-minute preparation work for any mission abroad as well as the implementation of computer tools and protocols to protect against computer security threats in China.
At Dutythis situation was made even more difficult when we realized, at the last minute, that the maximum delays since the last COVID-19 tests were not calculated in relation to the time of departure from Montreal, but from the start of the last stage of the trip to Beijing, forcing me, my college photographer Marie-France Coallier and me, to pass a last test in disaster.
It was only a few hours before departure that a soft voice from the Chinese consulate in Montreal assured us that the barcode would change color in time, and then the miracle happened. We were not yet at the end of our troubles, however, since twenty hours later everyone was still struggling with another computer application supposed to issue another barcode, but this time by the Chinese customs authorities. .
Despite all these emotions, the trip ended up going smoothly. Thanks, no doubt, to all the steps that had preceded them, the health and customs procedures at Beijing airport were even so quick and efficient that it was hard to believe that we were already seated in buses ready to take us to our hotels. That’s when we realized that the only time we didn’t have to show our proud green barcode was at the finish.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.