More patients leave hospital on recovery

Five patients were discharged from hospital on Thursday morning after they had recovered from coronavirus infections.

The health of the three males and two females, all Chinese, will continue to be monitored, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Health Commission, said.

On Wednesday, when two patients from Russia and Brazil, were discharged, there were no new imported or local novel coronavirus cases.

Before Thursday, the city hadn’t found any asymptomatic carriers from people under medical observation.

Of 339 local cases, seven people had died and the others had all recovered.

While 301 of 321 imported cases have been discharged, the remaining patients are still in hospital, including one in a critical condition and one in a serious condition. One suspected case is awaiting confirmation.

Dong Yiwen, deputy director of the Pudong New Area, said Pudong hadn’t reported any new local cases since March 2 thanks to strict health measures and district-wide efforts.

Pudong sent nearly 100,000 people to work on the front line at airports, hospitals and neighborhoods to ensure every confirmed or suspected case was quarantined.

Pudong set up 42 quarantine sites, 36 of which were set up within 24 days in March. Of the 89,062 people under medical observation, nearly one in four were transferred from airports.

Pudong set up special quarantine sites for overseas students and a 24-hour English hotline.

Yu Bo, president of Shanghai Pudong Hospital, said people shouldn’t worry about visiting the hospital since coronavirus cases were being treated is isolated wards. 

“Such wards are closed to normal patients. And we’ve arranged professional medics to take care of them,” he said. “The CT scanning machine for the fever clinic is only used for the fever clinic.”

The number of surgical operations at the hospital is 72 percent of the same period last year, people being hospitalized 65 percent and people receiving outpatient services 58 percent.

Li Xinming, director of Pudong’s health commission, said pregnant women, cancer patients and people in need of emergency treatment will be a priority. Other public health services such as vaccinations will resume gradually.

To support the resumption of business, seven hospitals in Pudong are offering nucleic acid tests, and can test nearly 4,000 samples a day. Six third-party medical institutions can also test up to 10,000 samples in a day.