City beefs up COVID measures as annual chunyun starts

A staffer with China Southern Airlines gives instructions to passengers at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport. Courtesy of the airport

Due to the sporadic COVID-19 cases cropping up in parts of the country, Shenzhen is now tightening preventative measures during chunyun, or the Spring Festival travel rush, that began Thursday, a 40-day period when Chinese people head home to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

According to the local chunyun transportation office, the city will set up 31 temporary medical observation posts at 28 busy transportation hubs, including railway stations and bus terminals. Trains will allocate designated seats for isolations and passengers are advised to wear masks the entire duration of their travel.

At the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, inbound and outbound passengers are required to wear masks, to go through temperature checks and to provide their health codes.

Those who don’t know how to use mobile phones to provide health codes can ask for help from airport ground service staff.

Passengers are forbidden to carry hand sanitizers that contain 70 percent alcohol or greater, either in their carry-on or check-in luggage. For sanitizers below the limit, passengers can ship with their luggage as long as the size is below 500 milliliters.

For late-night arrivals, the airport will offer customized bus routes commuting between Shenzhen and neighboring cities like Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Huizhou.

According to a notice by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, airlines will offer free refunds for tickets during the Spring Festival travel season that will run until March 8 this year.

China Southern Airlines estimates it will handle 60,000 flights over the period. Passengers are advised to check in at least two hours in advance, leaving sufficient time for temperature checks and health declarations. The flights will suspend check-in service 50 minutes before departure.

The Shenzhen branch of the airline operated 63 flights with 11,000 seats Thursday. It recorded a decline in the number of passengers to Beijing, Dalian in Liaoning Province, Changchun in Jilin Province, and Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, where COVID cases have been reported.

Nationally, more than 19.9 million trips were made on the first day of the travel rush.

This year’s Spring Festival travel season is expected to see around 1.15 billion passenger trips nationwide, a drop of more than 20 percent year on year and a plunge of over 60 percent from 2019, the Ministry of Transportation said Thursday.

A recent survey by China Youth Daily shows 85 percent of Chinese citizens have no travel plans for the holiday, following a government call on residents to minimize travel to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to a Xinhua report Thursday.