White list planned for frequent cross-provincial commuters

Shanghai will team up with neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu to adopt a white list system to verify regular cross-provincial commuters and allow them to avoid a notification banning them from entering public venues in Shanghai, like normal travelers or returnees.

From today, people traveling or returning to Shanghai from other provinces will be banned from entering a list of public venues, including eateries and supermarkets, for five days upon arrival.

They will receive a notification saying "less than five days upon arrival" on their health and venue code pages.

Such people are prohibited from entering all restaurants (including pubs), shopping centers (including department stores), supermarkets, wet markets, beauty and hair salons, bath and foot massage shops, indoor gyms, singing and dancing entertainment venues, game rooms, Internet bars, escape rooms and live action role-play game areas, as well as poker and chess rooms.

They are required to do nucleic acid tests upon arrival, three daily tests and another test on the fifth day on arrival before the notification is removed.

They are, however, allowed to take public transport including buses and the Metro, go to work, convenience stores, hospitals, banks and governmental facilities like police stations, courts and subdistrict offices within the five days of arrival.

They can stay in hotels, while only being allowed to receive room service or order food delivery within the five days.

The district anti-COVID authority will check and verify the qualifications of people on the white list and carry out coordination and anti-pandemic measures with neighboring regions in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, explained Shanghaifabu, the city's official WeChat account, in reply to online requests.