Foreign affairs staff on standby to help

Chen Bin, director of the Pudong New Area Foreign Affairs Office, has been on duty every day since Chinese New Year’s Eve to assist foreigners during the novel coronavirus crisis. His colleagues are also on standby to help foreigners who cannot speak Chinese.

“Some foreigners are not well informed of the epidemic situation and the prevention measures introduced by the city government,” said Chen. “If they can hear about the information in the language they know, it will help ease anxiety or panic.”

They have their work cut out as Pudong has about 160,000 expat residents and Pudong International Airport is one of the main entrances for foreigners coming to China.

Staff have been translating government notices and other useful information including self protection guidance and how to seek medical treatment, and are cooperating with neighborhood committees and social workers to make them available to as many foreigners as possible. They have also been collecting expats’ health and travel records and updating it with the district health authority and Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office to screen out potential risks in time and take action accordingly. Some officials have been designated to centralized quarantine places, where they have to stay for 14 days and be available round the clock to serve quarantined expats.

They are also ready to help deal with emergencies involving expats.

“As the neighborhood committees and social workers have established mature work systems in management, emergencies happened mainly among those who traveled to Shanghai,” said Chen.

During the Spring Festival they received a call from Chuansha New Town authorities about an expat family, including a 2-year-old baby and the wife’s mother, who had arrived from Wuhan on January 19 and were staying at a hotel. According to the city’s epidemic control measures, they should be quarantined at home or at a designated place. But they refused to cooperate. Chen and his team rushed to the site.

“They told us they had no symptoms and were afraid of being infected by other people at the designated place for quarantine,” said Chen.

The foreign affairs officials explained the situation and government policies to them. But the family said they were on a flight to America the next day, so the hotel emptied other rooms on the floor where they stayed.

They left the hotel the next day but did not leave Shanghai. Not all of them had US visas and they had to apply to the US Consulate General in Shanghai. When they were rejected by the consulate, they called Chen’s office and agreed to stay in quarantine.

As the US consulate is in Jing’an District, the district’s health officials took over the case. After 14 days in quarantine they were discharged without infection.

"They later called us and thanked us for our help," said Chen.

Chen said more than 30 expats from different countries including America, Jamaica, Australia, Japan and South Korea, have been put in quarantine, but some already discharged.

Chen said fewer expats are coming to China due to the outbreak and those who do are more aware of the epidemic situation and the measures the government has introduced. However, staff remain on duty in case any expat needs help or any foreign journalist needs assistance in reporting the news.