Airport staff ensure passengers are safe
Inspectors at Hongqiao airport check the mobile phone apps of passengers on domestic flights to Shanghai who must register their personal information, health condition and travel routes on the app.
About 5,000 staff at Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports are creating a barrier to prevent the novel coronavirus from entering the city.
Security inspectors, temperature checkers, guards and maintenance staff have been working day and night to screen passengers and clean terminals since the outbreak in January.
The Pudong and Hongqiao airports handle 120 million passengers per year and have four terminal buildings, including the world's largest satellite terminal. The huge turnover has created great pressure during the ongoing prevention campaign.
As more companies resume operations, an increasing number of passengers are returning to the city through the two airports.
"The airport authority has been closely monitoring the number of travelers coming into the city and conducting intensified screening and disinfection measures to ensure safety," Shanghai Airport Authority announced on Tuesday.
Since January 28, security inspectors at both airports have been under intensified pressure. They must conduct frequent disinfection along with their security duties.
Portable metal detectors, for example, are disinfected after checking each passenger. Antiseptic wipes are disinfected every 30 minutes and replaced every four hours.
Security checkpoints are fully disinfected every hour. After disinfection, the corridors are closed temporarily for ventilation to avoid the smell disturbing passengers.
Zhao Yan, a senior security inspector at Pudong, has voluntarily taken charge of disinfection at checkpoints, corridors and lounges thrice daily during rest periods.
Her husband, a member of the national emergency medical response team, is in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, heart of the epidemic.
Her daughter, a nurse at Shanghai East Hospital, is working overtime in its intensive care unit after many of its senior nurses left to help in Wuhan.
"During the current special period, it is our duty to stick to our posts," Zhao said. With advice from her husband, Zhao also guides her colleagues on how to properly wear hazmat suits, goggles and masks along with coronavirus protection knowledge.
Her colleague Shao Lipei, an inspector at Hongqiao, checks temperatures of arriving passengers. He and 50 other colleagues who voluntarily took the same assignment are working at the boarding gates in shifts between 7am and 1am, from the first to the last flight every day.
The airports have been checking the temperatures of all arrivals since January 28. Passengers with high temperatures are sent to designated medical facilities.
Shao is head of the No. 3 security inspectors' team at Hongqiao. He has worked over Spring Festival for many years and had planned to take a break this year for a family reunion in his hometown.
Instead, however, he applied to join the volunteer team soon after recruitment was announced.
"I promised my parents that I will go home right after the end of the epidemic," Shao said.
Zhao Yan, a senior security inspector at the Pudong airport, volunteers to take charge of disinfection at checkpoints, corridors and lounges.
Shao Lipei, an inspector at the Hongqiao airport, checks a passenger's temperature.
Aircraft inspector
The job of Fan Erqiang, an aircraft security inspector, is to prevent unauthorized people and vehicles from approaching planes after they land at the airport. He is also charged with inspecting the credentials of those working near aircraft.
Since the coronavirus outbreak, airplanes must remain on the tarmac after landing for a longer period for additional inspections. This means that inspectors like Fan also have to spend more time on each plane.
Fan oversees the security of about a dozen aircraft each day. His duties often place him in front of aircraft, where he must endure blistering cold winds and the heat radiating from jet engines for up to an hour at a time.
He had to break a promise he made to his daughter to spend Spring Festival with her this year. He canceled his holiday and applied for overtime with his colleagues to ensure aircraft security during the epidemic.
"My daughter said she understands and asked me to visit her after accomplishing the mission," Fan said.
The workload of Shi Feng, a mechanic at Hongqiao, has doubled since the outbreak. He has to disinfect any equipment that passengers may touch after regular inspections.
Previously, he would finish work at around 10pm after inspecting about 100 items of equipment, but now he regularly works till midnight.
"Travelers' safety is always my top priority," Shi said.
Under the airport authority's enhanced protection measures, disinfection is being carried out at transport hubs, shuttle buses and garages. Air-conditioning filters are being thoroughly sterilized every day. All toilets, nursing rooms, elevators, escalators and public areas are disinfected every hour.
Check-in counters, information desks and seats in terminal buildings are being sterilized three times a day and up to every two hours on peak days.
The terminal buildings, satellite terminals and two transport centers at the two airports undergo thorough disinfection at the end of each day.
The airport authority has allocated 1 million yuan (US$142,549) for frontline airport staff working during the coronavirus outbreak.
The funds are used to purchase protective equipment and as allowances for those who continue to serve passengers at both airports, said Gao Min, deputy director of the authority's security check office.
While airport staff ensure the safety of passengers and flights, Gao protects the safety of staff.
Medical, security and service staff have been issued with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. Additional protective gear has also been purchased, Gao said.
Fan Erqiang, an aircraft security inspector, guards a China Southern Airlines aircraft at Hongqiao.
Shi Feng, a mechanic at Hongqiao airport, disinfects security equipment.
