Yomiuri Shimbun:
The Beijing Municipal Government announced yesterday that all returnees to Beijing need to remain under home quarantine for 14 days. With regards to foreigners, as well as those coming from Japan, does the term "returnees" also include those who arrive from abroad?
He Qinghua:
I'm aware that Beijing introduced this policy requiring all returnees to stay under home quarantine for 14 days. I think Beijing initiated the policy based on the needs of local epidemic prevention and control work, because the situation along the journeys of the returning personnel is not clear. From the perspective of Beijing's epidemic prevention and control situation, there are reasons for Beijing to promulgate such a policy. Thank you.
CRNTT:
Some media sources believe that China is in a critical period in combating the virus and the return of travelers after the Spring Festival will inevitably lead to crowds of people. My question is, how should we prevent the epidemic from spreading by means of transportation, and reduce the risk to the destination areas where the passengers are heading? Thank you.
He Qinghua:
Thank you for your question. There are two aspects requiring special attention in terms of preventing the epidemic's spread by means of public transport:
On the one hand, we should understand that the transportation vehicles are carriers. In order to use the carriers safely, we must be strict about passengers. We have strictly prohibited people with a fever, cough, or illness from taking transportation to either travel or work at this time. They may continue working after they have recovered.
On the other hand, for all transportation carriers, the measures regarding railways, transport and civil aviation have just been covered. Many requirements have been made, including those for road traffic. As long as we follow strictly these requirements, then we should be able to control the spread of the virus through vehicles.
