Cities inform, protect foreigners through hotline services

To help foreigners in China get fully informed of the situation and empowered with knowledge of best practices for virus control and prevention, some major Chinese cities have launched foreign language support services.

In Beijing, the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government sent an open letter to non-Chinese citizen visitors to Beijing on Friday, calling for cooperation with local authorities in their efforts in fighting the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

The capital set up an information support hotline -- 12345. Eight foreign languages are available, including English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. English service is available 24 hours a day.

Tianjin authorities on Tuesday began providing guidelines to foreigners living in the city to help them deal with the outbreak after the arrival of an infected flight from Malaysia with a number of foreigners aboard.

Eighty-six passengers and crew members aboard Malindo Air Flight OD688 from Sabah, Malaysia — which arrived in Tianjin on Saturday — were isolated after landing.  

Two people on the flight have now been confirmed as having the novel coronavirus, one of whom had traveled from Wuhan, Hubei province to Malaysia.

Sixteen Malaysian and Bolivian passengers were among those isolated and placed under observation in a hotel in Tianjin's Dongli district, triggering concerns from foreigners in the city.

Authorities in charge of foreign experts in the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau released a guideline for foreigners and published a public telephone hotline — 86-022-58832998. The guideline lists specific ways for foreigners to get rapid medical service.

Yu Xuefeng, head of the foreign experts division of the bureau, told China Daily foreigners can call the hotline for help or use a WeChat account dedicated to medical services that has been in use since 2016.  

"We expect them to carefully read the bilingual guidelines to help raise their protection awareness and relieve their worries," she said.

The local foreign affairs office also released a public letter for foreigners living and traveling in Tianjin on Wednesday. It listed a 24-hour hotline — 022-58368675 — along with prevention guidelines and hospital telephone numbers.

In southern Guangdong province, a Pakistani and two Australians were diagnosed with the coronavirus on Wednesday afternoon. The province also released a public letter and multilingual service hotlines for foreigners to get answers.