Airport shoulders the burden to prevent imported virus cases

As the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, preventive measures targeting imported cases have become a pressing challenge in China.

To relieve pressure at large international airports, Wusu International Airport in Taiyuan, Shanxi province began receiving flights originally scheduled for Beijing on March 19.

As of April 21, Wusu has received 12 flights diverted from the capital, according to Shanxi's civil aviation officials.

The flights were from Canada, Ethiopia, Russia and Belarus.

Officers at the airport's customs have provided checks for more than 3,000 international travelers to date.

To ensure smooth processing, Taiyuan Customs has established a special task team for examination and quarantine, including 100-plus customs officers and 75 medical workers from various hospitals in the city.

According to Zhang Biqi, an official responsible for quarantine in customs, team members must comply with the strictest preventive measures and procedures to ensure the health of passengers and themselves.

"We usually wear two layers of gloves to ensure our safety," Zhang said. "Our standards to judge the passengers' health conditions are not limited to taking body temperatures. We will ask passengers their travel history and pay close attention to symptoms like cough and difficulty in breathing." The official said all passengers will be classified into three categories according to their risk levels.

"Passengers with marked symptoms will be led to a specific area, and passengers in close contact with the former will be led to another area," Zhang said.

She added the various groups of passengers will be taken to separated areas at customs for further examinations and tests.

Confirmed and suspected cases will be given a nucleic acid test in an airport laboratory, according to Zhang.

Passengers without symptoms are required to undergo a two-week quarantine in nearby hotels before they can leave for Beijing.

The process of examination and quarantine for one flight usually takes more than five hours, according to Zhang.

However, airport examination does not end there.

Fleets of ambulances and buses wait outside the airport, carrying confirmed and suspected patients to designated hospitals and asymptomatic passengers to designated hotels for quarantine.

There are two hospitals and more than 100 medics designated to serve confirmed and suspected patients, and 46 hotels to accommodate other international passengers, according to the Shanxi Health Commission.

Li Yali contributed to this story.