More customs officers to screen arriving passengers

Shanghai Customs doubled its number of officers at local airports to work all day and night, preventing overseas passengers who carry novel coronavirus from avoiding quarantine.

According to deputy chief Jiang Yuan, the number of officers has increased from 500 to 1,132 at airports to handle the mass of passengers.

Passengers from 24 key countries affected by coronavirus epidemic are given stricter onboard checks, temperature screening and health declaration reviews.

Those with fever or other obvious symptoms are sent to hospital by ambulance while those whose symptoms are less obvious go for tests at quarantine sites.

Passengers lining up for clearance must keep a safe distance from each other.

Customs officers will also board flights from countries other than the 24, take each passenger's temperature and learn their travel history for their health declaration cards.

On Friday, the first day after the city expanded its list of key affected countries from 16 to 24, customs checked 123 flights and 11,298 passengers. Nearly 70 percent of these people were found had been to the 24 countries but almost half of them made a transfer in other countries before flying to Shanghai.

They have all been sent to quarantine sites for 14 days of isolation.

Jiang said they also carefully reviewed the information on passengers provided by airlines, and worked with the immigration authority and local health commissions to identify people from the listed 24 countries who came to Shanghai via airlines from the non-key affected nations.