The 56th press conference on Guangdong's fight against COVID-19 was held in Guangzhou today on April 22nd.

[PhotoCao Yaqin]

Guangdong had reported no new confirmed cases as of midnight, April 21st, and 88.5 % of its cities and counties have had no new cases for 14 days in a row, according to Lin Lifeng, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lin stressed people should remain cautious about the potential for the virus to spread and take social distancing seriously.

“Guangzhou has set up temporary check points for Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) in high-risk areas across the city,” he added, “if you have been to any high-risk areas or had close contact with a patient, you should go to the designated hospitals for testing.”

[PhotoNanfang Daily]

According to the previous announcement, secondary schools’ senior students will resume off-line classes on April 27th. Wang Chuang, Deputy Director-General of Department of Education of Guangdong Province, said the health department started screening and testing on teachers and students to ensure there will be no further outbreak after reopening the schools.

Wang indicated teachers and students who came back from high-risk areas should go through a 14-day quarantine and must test negative for the virus before returning to school.

“As of April 16th, senior secondary school students and their teachers from high risk began to be tested and all have been reported to be healthy,” said Wang, ‘we will finish the testing on all teachers and students from high-risk areas before school is reconvened.”

In addition, Guangdong has purchased a great deal of masks and will send them to the secondary schools across its 21 cities. The supply will be enough for 14 days, with each student having access to 2 masks everyday.

Wang revealed that students in 26 provinces are now back to school. As of today, no infection has been reported among them.

Author| Jasmine

Editor| Keane, Steven, Simon