Connexcel has been inundated by various schools and parents asking about the procedure that is required for acquiring all tests and documentation needed for students travelling back to China. As a few of our students have already gone through the process and flown home, we thought it may be useful for us to show a timeline of the process and illustrate the approximate timescales for each of the steps involved.

Below is a case study for one student whose flight was departing at 1:20pm on 17th November 2020.

· 12th November – Sent out for a COVID-19 PCR swab kit and COVID-19 Antibody testing kit prior to the test date.

· 15th November – Samples for tests were taken at school’s Medical Centre. A courier was booked to collect the kits after 12pm that day. Kits arrived at testing lab later the same day.

· 16th November – Kits were processed and reported by the lab. Results were received by email before 6pm. Once negative test results were received, the green QR code was applied for through the WeChat app. After three attempts, the QR code was finally generated at around 9pm.

· 17th November – Departed for airport (by taxi) at 7:30am. Boarded flight as normal however the green QR code needed to be shown.

· 18th November – Arrived in China. Applied for self-isolation at home successfully. Spent 1 day in isolation at hotel and would need to spend the remaining 13 days of the quarantine period at their home address.