There are now no high-risk areas anywhere in Guangdong Province, and all cities have been graded low risk, except for Foshan’s Chancheng District, which is currently graded medium-risk, according to the latest information released by the Guangdong Health Commission.

The 47th press conference on Guangdong's fight against COVID-19 was held in Guangzhou today.

The 47th press conference on Guangdong's fight against COVID-19 was held in Guangzhou today. (Photo: Cao Yaqin)

As of midnight of March 24th, Guangdong had reported 5 new imported cases, with 4 cases in Guangzhou (from the UK, the US, Pakistan and Chile), 1 case in Shenzhen (from the UK), according to Ji Leqin, Counselor of the Health Commission of Guangdong Province.

At the press conference, Mai Jiaomeng, Director-General of the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation, said that individual businesses are essential for powering Guangdong’s continued economic development.

“There are over 7 million individual businesses in Guangdong, accounting for 56% of the total market entities in the province and providing more than 15 million job positions,” said Mai. “More than 97% of individual businesses working in agriculture, food, production of epidemic supplies and daily-life necessities have now returned to work.”

Guangdong has issued a series of measures to further address the problems that individual businesses have encountered in the process of resuming production.

According to Mai, for those individual businesses who rent state-owned property for business use and are greatly affected by the epidemic, they will be exempted from paying rent for the first month and the rent will be halved for the second and third months.

“In addition, estate owners who offer to exempt tenants from rent payments or reduce rent for more than 2 months can apply for a reduction in house property tax and tax on using urban land”, Mai added.

Mai explained that in the case they encounter operational difficulties as a result of the epidemic, individual businesses can apply to the bank for an extension on the loans that are due after January 25th 2020, and loan interest due from January 25th to June 30th 2020.

Bu Xiaoqiang, president of the Guangdong clothing industry association, said that nearly 40 clothing enterprises have now started mask production, most of which have applied for CE and FDA certification.

“Except for meeting domestic mask demands, these enterprises will export masks to other countries to help fight the epidemic at the global level,” Bu said.

Authors: Steven Yuen, Zoey Huang (intern)

Editors: Simon Haywood, Keane Wong