Since March 6, both Shanghai’s airports have set up designated gathering points to prevent and control COVID-19 coming from abroad. Passengers from countries or regions that are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will be quarantined after being given health examinations. After their health data has been collected, these passengers will be be transported to their destinations by shuttle bus or private car so as to avoid potential cross infection on public transport.

    Since many passengers returning to Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province need to go through Shanghai first, the two provinces have dispatched teams to the two major airports in Shanghai so that they can pick up these passengers and send them out of the airport through the “closed loop”.

    A passenger shared her experience online, introducing the “closed loop” in detail.

 

    1. Closed Loop

    Volunteers wear protective clothing, goggles and masks while registering passengers’ information in the airport hall. Their protective clothing have “Zhejiang”, “Jiangsu” and their names written on them. This area outside the isolation area is the “security area” of the two designated gathering points.

    All the passengers who line up here have a green label on their passports, indicating that they are from non-key countries or regions. Passengers with yellow or red labels on their passports will be sent out of the airport to the isolation area after registration, completely separated from other areas.

    According to the regulations of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, even if they have a green label, passengers cannot leave without permission. After registering their personal information, they either take a specially assigned bus to leave Shanghai directly, or take a private car to depart, and the pick-up person and driver must also register their information.

Passengers who have been directed to the isolation area of the hub will face stricter rules: They are only allowed to take specially assigned buses and private car pick up is strictly prohibited.

 

    2. Efficiency

    In the quarantine area, a passenger said that before returning to China, he heard that it was very troublesome to enter the country as it took at least five hours to get out of the airport, but for him, it only took two hours, from getting off the plane to hopping onto the train. It was a lot faster than he expected, the whole process was very smooth and clear instructions were given every step of the way. 

 

    3: Non-Stop

    Where to go next is also a worrying issue for passengers in the designated gathering points. A bus driver said his task is to pick up passengers who have no clear destination and transport them to a hotel to undergo self-quarantine near the airport.

    The speed at which this system was set up has impressed many online and they have praised Shanghai’s security and pandemic prevention measures as “excellent work”.

    Source: Shanghai Fa Bu