Beijing to quarantine travelers from coronavirus hotspots as China sees spike in IMPORTED cases

Beijing will begin to isolate travelers arriving in the Chinese capital from countries hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, amid a rise in imported cases of the disease. Shanghai has reportedly taken similar measures.

All individuals entering Beijing from South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy will be quarantined for 14 days, the Deputy Secretary General of the Beijing Municipal Government, Chen Bei, said on Tuesday. The countries placed on the quarantine list are among the largest carriers of the coronavirus outside China. Bei explained that the new rule would apply to everyone arriving from the designated nations, regardless of nationality.

Shanghai announced earlier that it would also force visitors who had recently traveled to countries with “relatively serious virus conditions” to undergo a two-week quarantine, but the city did not specify which countries it was referring to.

The move came as China reported an increase in the number of coronavirus cases imported from abroad. There have been 13 confirmed cases of the virus being brought into mainland China – all involving Chinese nationals returning from overseas. The figured spiked after it was revealed that eight Chinese nationals returning from Italy's northern Lombardy region tested positive for the virus in eastern Zhejiang province.

Meanwhile, China’s strict policies to combat the virus are starting to pay off. In Wuhan, a ‘pop-up’ hospital built in less than two weeks to handle coronavirus patients was closed, after discharging its last batch of recovered patients. In the surrounding Hubei province, less than 200 new cases were reported in a single day – the first time since January.

Originating in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has killed some 3,100 people and infected over 90,000 worldwide – the vast majority in mainland China.

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