City curbs for visitors from risk areas
SHANGHAI has tightened the health management of people visiting or returning to Shanghai from domestic medium- or high-risk areas, epidemic prevention and control officials announced yesterday.
The move comes after Gaocheng District in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of China’s northern Hebei Province, was classified as a high-risk area for COVID-19.
Those arriving in Shanghai from or by way of high-risk areas have to undergo 14 days of concentrated quarantine while those from medium-risk zones will be under community health observation for two weeks. They will be tested twice for nucleic acid during isolation or observation.
They should inform village committees, neighborhood committees, working units or hotels within 12 hours of their arrival in Shanghai.
Hebei Province, which has entered a “wartime mode,” on Tuesday reported 20 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of existing confirmed cases to 39 in the province.
Among the new confirmed cases, 19 were reported in Shijiazhuang and one in the city of Xingtai, the provincial health commission said yesterday.
Also on Tuesday, the province reported 43 asymptomatic cases, two of them were reported in Xingtai and the others were all in Shijiazhuang, the commission said.
Three areas in Xingtai, including two residential communities, were designated as medium-risk areas.
About 2 million residents in Shijiazhuang had been sampled by 5pm yesterday in a citywide test and seven returned positive.
The city of 11 million ramped up countermeasures. The Hebei Airport Management Holding Co Ltd said yesterday that every passenger departing from the Shijiazhuang airport should present his or her negative nucleic acid test result acquired within 72 hours of boarding.
Shijiazhuang airport shuttle bus services have been suspended, as have the operations of the city’s passenger coach terminal station, according to their operating company, Jiyun Group Co Ltd.
Traffic control measures have been taken on the Shijiazhuang sections of multiple expressways, with vehicles forbidden to enter the expressways from the gates of the city.