As of March 25th, Guangdong had reported 11 new imported cases, with 9 cases in Guangzhou (7 from the UK, 1 from Togo, 1 form Ethiopia), and 2 cases in Shenzhen (from the US and France).

On March 26th, Guangdong reported a further 4 new imported cases, with 3 cases in Guangzhou (2 from Nigeria, 1 from France), and 1 case in Zhanjiang (from Cambodia).

The 48th press conference on Guangdong's fight against COVID-19 was held in Guangzhou today.

On March 24th, Guangdong issued another 26 measures to support SMEs in getting back to work.

At the press conference, Tu Gaokun, Director-General of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province, explained that the 26 measures will aid SMEs in the following ways: supporting work resumption, periodically reducing operation costs, alleviating financial difficulties and strengthening service guarantee.

“All cities across the province are encouraged to reduce operational overheads for SMEs by cutting water, electricity and gas rates, rents and taxes”, said Tu. “The supportive measures for SMEs are temporary. If the duration is not clearly indicated in the document, it should be implemented until December 31st, 2020.”

Tu said that Guangdong has increased support for SMEs in terms of promoting employment, reducing taxes and rents and providing financial aids. Tax reductions in excess of 140 billion yuan are already in place.

According to the 26 measures, all cities should ensure market supplies of masks, protective suits, disinfectants, thermometers etcetera to meet the needs of SMEs. “Guangdong has assisted SMEs in purchasing over 8 million masks and other key supplies”, Tu added.

Tu explained that Guangdong has coordinated with financial institutions to introduce special financial products, in order to meet the financial demands of SMEs. As of now, more than 260 SMEs have successfully applied for over 1.7 billion yuan of financial products.

Authors: Steven Yuen, Zoey Huang (intern)

Editors: Simon Haywood, Keane Wong