By Lu Ya’nan, People’s Daily
In the early morning of Feb. 1, 2020, when many people were asleep in the warmth of their quilts, groups of bullet trains were heading into the maintenance warehouse of Nanchang West Railway Station in Nanchang, east China’s Jiangxi province.
There, mechanists and disease control personnel were overhauling the body parts of the trains and carrying out disinfection operations on passenger compartments.
To prevent and control the spread of the novel coronavirus, the State Council of China announced that the Lunar New Year holiday was extended to Feb. 2, and the extension will be longer in certain places. As the holiday has come to an end for most people, the country is seeing a travel rush in recent days.
At the critical moment of virus prevention and control, railway workers joined the fight against the novel coronavirus. While maintaining the bullet trains, they’ve also engaged in epidemic prevention and disinfection work, in order to make sure that the trains are clean and free from failures. All the efforts aim at satisfying passengers’ travel needs after the holiday.
Zhang Liubo, chief disinfection expert of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the large flow of population poses a very serious challenge for epidemic prevention and control, suggesting that passengers protect themselves during their trips so as to reduce virus prevention and control pressure of relevant departments after they arrive at the destinations.
At present, all passengers’ body temperatures need to be measured at both entrances and exits of all operating railway stations across the country. Those identified with a fever, one of the symptoms of the novel coronavirus infection, will be put under isolation on the train and delivered to the next station with an observation ward. Meanwhile the train will be sterilized, and those in close contact with the suspected cases are recorded.
As a measure to prevent and control the new coronavirus virus, Beijing Capital International Airport has increased the amount of fresh air supply in each terminal to ensure sound ventilation and amplified the frequency of disinfection for equipment and facilities. In addition, the boarding bridges, baggage carousels and other areas used by flights with fevered passengers will be disinfected immediately after the flights are completed.
The airport is currently equipped with 49 temperature measuring devices to take the temperature of all passengers arriving in Beijing and all personnel entering and leaving the terminals.
The airport has also launched special transfer procedures and routes to avoid contact between fevered passengers and the rest. While providing travel services, the airport has obtained protective materials through multiple channels so as to protect each employee on the front line of epidemic prevention and control.
