Shanghai requires 14-day quarantine for travelers from COVID-19 high-risk regions in China

Global Times

Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/16 15:43:20

Travelers making their way from coronavirus high-level risk regions in China will be subject to undergo a 14-day centralized quarantine before entering Shanghai, and will also be required to undergo nucleic acid testing twice during their mandated quarantine period, health authorities in Shanghai announced on Tuesday, with Beijing recently putting 29 of its local communities into "lockdown" as the city's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rises to 106 as of Tuesday.

Domestic travelers from medium-level risk regions will also be required to undergo a 14-day "community management" period, and will need to be tested for the virus twice.

In an effort to ensure the city's ability to provide sufficient nucleic acid testing, Shanghai's health authorities aim to push COVID-19 testing resources into 21 more medical institutes by the end of June, making the number of available institutions 105, with the ability to test up to 90,000 people every day, from the current 70,000 capacity.

The city's health authorities said on Tuesday that Shanghai aims to strictly follow the country's epidemic prevention and control measures; that is, improve the city's health reporting mechanisms in airports and railway stations, enhance epidemic prevention methods within local communities, strengthen the inspection of imported goods from high-level risk countries and regions, and more effectively manage the city's wholesale markets.

The city's social workers have continued their epidemic safety review of Shanghai's wholesale markets, restaurants, supermarkets, office buildings, railway stations and metros since February, said Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai's Health Commission.

In fact, Shanghai's social workers have already started testing imported goods and products in 87 local markets in the city's all 16 districts, said Wu, adding and all 1,205 samples, including 338 imported food, have returned negative test results.

The city will strengthen its management over local wholesale markets, including the implementation of regular disinfection, food safety protocols, staff management, as well as ensuring emergency response can be performed in a timely manner, according to Shanghai authorities.

Besides Shanghai, other cities in China have also strengthened their management over local markets, after a cluster of infections was discovered in Beijing's Xinfadi market. Wuhan, in Central China's Hebei Province, began a three-day inspection of the city's supermarkets, wet markets, and vegetable markets, on Saturday. East China's Zhejiang Province also announced its intentions to thoroughly review the city's food safety standards on Monday.

40 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland on Monday, of which 32 were domestically transmitted and eight were imported cases, Chinese health authorities said on Tuesday.