Extra restrictions on people from outbreak areas to cease

China's National Health Commission has beefed up efforts to prevent local authorities from imposing additional restrictions on people from areas previously hit by COVID-19 outbreaks.

Cheng Youquan, deputy director of the commission's supervision bureau, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that they have created a supervision team to work with several central departments, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Transport, to manage the problems caused by additional restrictions on COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control work.

He said that the team has recently opened an online page and complaint hotline on the commission's official website to solicit information from the public.

He said that members of the team will check the information and help people deal with problems and difficulties after verifying its accuracy.

The working team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council will have regulatory talks with local authorities if necessary, and highlight problems through press conferences or social media.

"We've recently noticed that some local authorities are placing random restrictions and quarantine measures on people from Shanghai or other areas previously hit by outbreaks, which should be rectified immediately following the newly released State-level epidemic control measures," he added.