As of midnight, February 19th, Guangdong had reported 1 new case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Dongguan, pushing the total number of infected patients to 1332. No new cases were confirmed in other cities.

The last infected expat in Guangdong province was cured and discharged from hospital on February 19th. At present, a total of 10 foreign nationals in Guangdong confirmed as infected have recovered. As of midday, February 19th, there were no newly confirmed or suspected cases among the expat community.

Dine-in service will be resumed in areas where the outbreak was not so severe, according to an official instruction on restaurants returning to work released by the provincial government, Geng Qingshan, Party Secretary of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, announced at the 26th press conference on the province’s fighting against the coronavirus this afternoon.

According to the directive, restaurants in Level Ⅳ areas are allowed to resume dine-in service entirely, those in Level Ⅲ areas can provide limited dine-in service in the hall, and those in Level Ⅱ areas can only provide dine-in service in private rooms.

(Photo: Cao Yaqin from Southcn.com)

Those restaurants must prepare adequate medical supplies for staff to be able to perform their duties. Staff should undergo an examination and temperature check every day. Staff must maintain hygiene practice, washing their hands correctly and wear face masks.

Customers need to have temperatures taken and must register their details before entering, eating at separate tables to maintain distance. Catering firms are not permitted to hold large-scale dining activities before the end of the current period epidemic prevention and control.

According to Geng, Guangdong has recently initiated classification management for the epidemic prevention and control system. The whole province will be classified into 4 levels (Level Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ), according to the number of newly confirmed cases in the area. Different measures will be adopted according to area and classification in terms of travel restrictions, companies’ resuming production and so on. At present, no areas in Guangdong are classified as Level Ⅰ.

In Guangzhou, Haizhu District, Baiyun District, Panyu District, Yuexiu District and Zengcheng District are presently classified as Level Ⅱ, Tianhe District, Liwan District, Huadu District and Huangpu District are Level Ⅲ, and Conghua District and Nansha District are Level Ⅳ. The classification will be updated every day.

Authors: Nan, Zoey, Selma & Zero

Editors: Olivia & Simon