PEOPLE arriving in Shenzhen after the Spring Festival holiday are urged to declare their health conditions to authorities via WeChat miniapp “深i您” or to their working units, communities or schools.

Shenzhen Vice Mayor Wu Yihuan made the remark at a news conference of the Guangdong Provincial Government Information Office in Guangzhou on Saturday.

In the latest effort to contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Shenzhen has taken measures in six perspectives to prevent the pandemic, she said.

The measures include working out and implementing standard guidance on public transport and in schools and elderly homes, tightening checks at urban villages and communities, and ensuring the materials supply for and management of people who are quarantined at home or in designated places.

Shenzhen police have set up nearly 100 inspection stations, operating 24 hours a day, on all 49 intercity roads, scanning the body temperatures of both passengers and drivers.

“The city is using every possible means to ensure materials are supplied to the public, leveraging technologies to make breakthroughs in pandemic research and forming closed-loop management systems to prevent further outbreak,” Wu said.

In the first 12 hours yesterday, Shenzhen confirmed 11 new cases, adding the total number to 207, according to the city’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). Five recovered patients have been discharged from hospital.

By yesterday noon, Guangdong had reported 632 new confirmed cases and 2,504 people who had close contact with confirmed patients were under medical observation.

The confirmed patients are receiving treatment at Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital, which can offer 1,000 beds.

Facing the grim situation, Shenzhen Party chief Wang Weizhong required related agencies at a separate meeting Saturday to strictly implement Level-I response mechanisms and tighten checks, monitoring and prevention in public areas to reduce risks.

“Shenzhen may report an increasing number of confirmed cases in the coming days as more people are expected to return to work. We are pooling the best medical resources at Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital,” Luo Lexuan, director with the city’s health commission, said at the conference.

At present, 28 institutions can conduct pathogen nucleic acid tests to detect the virus. The capacity to screen and confirm patients has been greatly improved, according to Luo.

The increased screening capability has led to a rise in confirmed or suspected cases, and it is good for the local CDC to implement quarantine to curb the spread of the virus, Feng Tie, deputy director with the CDC, said.

(Han Ximin)