Holiday alert: no gathering, wearing masks, washing hands

With the arrival of the New Year holiday late this week, the Shanghai Health Promotion Center alerted the public to keep high awareness of COVID-19 prevention and control, especially the elevated risk due to gatherings.

The center reiterated the importance of wearing a mask in indoor or crowded outdoor places and changing the mask promptly if it becomes dirty or deformed. A single mask cannot be worn for over eight hours.

If going to a hospital or taking interprovincial public transportation, masks should not be reused.

Frequent hand-washing, covering of the nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing, keeping social distance and avoiding unnecessary gatherings, and limiting gatherings to 10 people are all important steps to preventing the spread of COVID-19.