Beijing inspection and quarantine officers are grappling with a dilemma in the run up to the Olympics: how to ensure smooth entry into sites for personnel and animals while keeping events safe from exotic diseases?
An officer from the Beijing Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine Bureau examines luggage with help of a specially-trained sniffer dog at the port of entry of Beijing International Airport.
[China Daily]
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Though there are still 600-plus days to go before the 2008 Olympic Games, inspection and quarantine staff are feeling the pressure from the increasing influx of goods and materials, from elevators and refuse destructors, to plants and pets.
According to officials with the Beijing Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Beijing has worked out arrangements and emergency plans for the inspection and quarantine of Olympic-related goods.
Among the solutions is an "Olympic Green Channel," which shuttles important people and goods through as fast as possible. There is also a 24-hour service hotline for problems, and officers have been specially trained to take charge of inspection and quarantine issues, said Dong Jingmin, an official with the General Office of the bureau.
Furthermore, the bureau is using advanced technologies to test for viruses and diseases. This will help speed up the process, Dong said.
For instance, it used to take 21 days to test for avian flu virus, but a process known as Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) has cut down the wait to four hours. Similarly, the time it takes to check for swine streptococcus has been cut from one week to one and a half hours.
"We have also launched several research projects to shorten the test period of equine diseases, canine diseases, fruit flies and many other viruses," Dong told China Daily, adding that these fast-testing technologies are of great importance to guarantee the biological security of Beijing during the Olympics.
Lai Ping'an, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Beijing Committee, the city's top advisory body, said the demands of fast entry of alien goods and animals during the Olympics are somewhat counter to current Chinese laws and regulations on inspection and quarantine.
For instance, it is required that accompanied animals need to be quarantined for about 30 days before entry, which can't work with guide dogs accompanying foreign athletes and officials to the Games. The exit-entry of foreign people with severe infectious diseases is also a difficult issue.
"Without effective inspection and quarantine measures, exotic viruses and diseases might enter Beijing and pose threats to local people's health and to the security of the Olympics," Lai said in an interview with the China News Agency.
