Employees with mild or no COVID symptoms encouraged to return to work

CFP

Governments in multiple places across China are calling for people with mild or no COVID-19 symptoms to return to work in order to resume production at full throttle as soon as possible.

Employees of government agencies who have mild or no symptoms can return to their posts while wearing masks when necessary, said Chen Zhong, secretary general of the Zhejiang provincial government, at a press briefing on December 18.

All government agencies should avoid widespread infections at the same time and reduce the impact of the pandemic to as little as possible, Chen said.

Southwest China's Chongqing made a similar announcement on the same day, while the city of Wuhu in east China's Anhui Province followed suit the next day.

The adjustments were made against the backdrop of increasing efforts to minimize the impact of the disease while shifting focus from the prevention of infections to the treatment of critical patients and maintaining normal work and life order.

Maternity and children's hospitals in Jiaozuo City, in central China's Henan Province, and Macheng, Hubei Province, and Menglian County TCM hospital in Yunnan Province are also encouraging their staff to continue to work if their symptoms are not severe, as the staff shortage has impaired the normal functioning of the hospitals.

Those staff who have COVID-19 can go to work in the "positive zone," an area designated to treat COVID-19 patients, according to the maternity hospital in Macheng.