Guangdong going all-out on virus prevention as workers return

South China's Guangdong province is going all out for prevention and controlling the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in the country's most populous province.

With the return of a large number of migrant workers from around the country after the lunar new year holidays, the situation of preventing and controlling the novel coronavirus pneumonia is very severe in Guangdong, then relevant departments and organizations have to spare no efforts to prevent and fight against the epidemic, according to the provincial authorities on Monday.

Guangdong, one of the country's economic powerhouses, has a population of more than 110 million and the province also has the country's largest number of migrant workers, authorities said.

The province, window of China's reform and opening up, has more than 22 million migrant workers.

To help fight against the disease, Guangdong Provincial Medical Products Administration has approved a new medicine called Pneumonia No 1, a traditional Chinese medicine granule, to be first used in 30 designated hospitals to treat novel coronavirus pneumonia in the province from Saturday.

Tan Hanghua, a senior traditional Chinese medical doctor from Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital, said that Pneumonia No. 1 has been proven to be effective in curing light novel coronavirus pneumonia patients.

"And the traditional Chinese medicines would play an important role in fighting against the disease when they are widely used in clinic," said Tan who is one of major medical staff in developing Pneumonia No. 1.

Wei Mei, deputy general manager of Guangdong Yifang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, said the company has started production of Pneumonia No. 1 and the production cycle of the medicine, which consists of 16 traditional Chinese medicines, is about a week.

Starting Saturday, all patients treated at fever clinics in Guangdong have needed to receive nucleic acid testing of throat swab samples against the NCP.

The provincial authorities have ordered all the fever clinics in the province to strictly comply with all the current management standards.

"Those who have positive results of the nucleic acid testing will be immediately isolated for treatment," authorities said.

All the residents in the province have been required to register their identity cards and leave their addresses and contact phone numbers when they want to purchase medicines themselves to cure fever and cough from local pharmacies after a province-wide inspection campaign to seek the possible NCP patients and suspects starting the weekend.

Local neighborhood committees and property management companies also have been required to measure their body temperatures of all residents who want to enter into their housing estates and communities while residents are required to report their health conditions and relevant people they have contacted in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Transportation has now set up a total of 19 cross-province checkpoints in the province's expressway network to prevent imported NCP cases, while Guangzhou City Bureau of Transportation has required all the passengers to have their body temperature measured when they want to take the city's public transports, including buses, metro trains and ferries.

As the end of Sunday, Guangdong has reported a total of 1,151 confirmed NCP cases after 31 cases were reported on Sunday alone.