Tangshan tightens rules for inbound visitors amid pandemic

New inbound visitors to Tangshan city of North China's Hebei province are required to be honest about their travel whereabouts and cooperate with the quarantine work, according to a statement released on Friday by the city's leading office dealing with the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Tangshan authority is stepping up measures to prevent novel coronavirus cases from being imported from other virus-hit nations via entry, as the outbreak slows within the country but picks up speed across the world.

The National Health Commission said on Saturday, seven new infections came from abroad on Friday, with four in Shanghai, two in Gansu province and one in Beijing.

To date, 95 imported cases have been counted.

According to the statement of the Tangshan government, the inbound visitors include anyone with Chinese or foreign nationalities, whether they make the entry directly from abroad or via transfers from other domestic cities. All inbound visitors must have their health checked by the communities, village, receiving institutions or the hotels, and must cooperate with the quarantine work.

Those who create the risk of a coronavirus outbreak by covering up their contacts with other people or travel history, providing false information about their symptoms, or refusing to obey the laws will have to bear criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.

It also said in the statement that if any of the inbound visitors tested positive for COVID-19, the patient has to bear all the medical expenses.

Meanwhile, the hotels, guesthouses, receiving institutions, communities and villages receiving inbound visitors are required to report information on their stays to the local public security bureaus, and those who do not follow the requirements will have to bear serious punishment in accordance with the law.

According to the statement, any informant on a confirmed case in any above-mentioned instances will be given a monetary prize of 3,000 yuan ($428). In circumstances where many people inform on the same case, the first informant gets the bonus.