Immigration authorities pre-screening passengers to curb virus

The national immigration administration has been carrying out big data analysis to pre-screen travelers who have been to virus-hit countries to contain imported transmissions, a senior official said on Sunday.

The results of the pre-screening will be shared with other departments through the joint prevention and control mechanism, including customs and quarantine departments, ahead of the arrival of international flights to China, said Liu Haitao, director of the administration’s border inspection administration division.

The administration would also timely share the entry and exit information of the personnel with the governments of destinations, providing them with information to support local epidemic control, Liu said.

In the next step, the administration will carry out international cooperation through bilateral or multilateral means to promote communication with those countries and regions with severe outbreaks in terms of the entry and exit information, and exchange experiences and measures of the epidemic prevention and inspection, Liu added.