Guangzhou health station can isolate 5,000 arrivals

A new international health station will open in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in September to help prevent the importation of novel coronavirus infections.

Huang Yihui, president of Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, said it will have 450 staff members initially, including 300 medical personnel and 150 administrative ones.

His hospital will provide medical services at the new station, which will be in Zhongluotan township in northern Guangzhou's Baiyun district.

All inbound passengers will be sent to the station for two weeks of quarantine upon their arrival in Guangzhou, meaning they will no longer need to be quarantined at designated hotels in the city.

Currently, all inbound passengers must register a negative nucleic acid test result after 14 days of quarantine before they are allowed to leave their quarantine hotels.

"We want to construct a safe, comfortable and intelligent station to meet the growing demand for preventing and controlling imported coronavirus in the city, which is one of the major exit and entry ports on the Chinese mainland," Huang said.

Covering an area of more than 257,800 square meters, the station will consist of 11 zones with facilities including a fever clinic, a comprehensive medical clinic, blood purification centers and laboratories to provide high-quality diagnosis and treatment services for inbound passengers, he said.

The station will have 5,000 independent isolation rooms.

Wang Changxing, an office worker in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, said a new international health station is needed to help screen for possible COVID-19 patients and asymptomatic carriers among inbound passengers and strengthen centralized management of the growing number of arrivals expected when the country opens its doors wider in the months ahead.

"The current quarantine hotels in downtown areas are too scattered and too close to residential areas," he said.

Gao Yuyue, deputy secretary-general of Guangzhou's city government, announced the construction of the new health station late last month.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has opened more than 230 international flights linking the city to five continents, and about 80 percent of inbound passengers entering the mainland are doing so via Guangzhou.

The Guangdong Provincial Health Commission said the province reported five imported COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing its total to 2,756 patients, including 1,190 imported cases.

As of Sunday, 123 patients remained in hospital.