Nation tightens virus control measures ahead of holidays
With two major national holidays on the horizon, China is advising people not to travel, to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19. Those who wish to visit other provincial-level regions must provide negative nucleic acid test results taken within 48 hours before using public transport and to be tested again upon arrival, health officials said on Thursday.
The requirements were announced in the run-up to the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which starts on Saturday, and the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, as new cases have been reported this month in 29 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission said.
Wu Liangyou, deputy head of the commission's Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said that while the outbreaks in Hainan province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are tailing off, the epidemic control situation in the Tibet autonomous region and Sichuan province remains severe despite dropping number of new cases.