Guangzhou calls on expats to abide by anti-virus rules

Guangzhou treats all foreigners equally, but foreign residents should also abide by the local epidemic prevention regulations, city officials said at a news conference on Sunday.

"We take the same prevention and control measures for all people entering Guangzhou regardless of their nationality, race and gender," Liu Baochun, director of the city's foreign affairs office, said at the news conference.

"Guangzhou is an open, international metropolis and treats all foreign people equally. We oppose all forms of differentiation for a specific group of people," Liu said.

Liu noted that the city improved its service mechanism to avoid misunderstandings or improper behavior due to poor communication in its health management services.

"We hope that foreign residents of Guangzhou will strictly abide by local epidemic prevention regulations and work together with us to do a good job in epidemic prevention and control and work resumption," Liu said.

Cai Wei, spokesman for the Guangzhou public security bureau, said all foreigners in Guangzhou should strictly comply with Chinese law and are obliged to accept the examination of their passports and other identity documents by public security organs.

Since March 27, Guangzhou has demanded all arrivals from overseas undergo a 14-day quarantine and nucleic acid testing for the novel coronavirus disease.

By Saturday, 4,553 people from high-risk countries had been tested in Guangzhou, 679 people were under centralized medical observation and 3,771 were isolated at home.

Guangzhou reported 119 imported cases of the disease as of midnight on Saturday, according to Mayor Wen Guohui.

Of the 119 imported cases, 25 concerned foreigners and 94 were Chinese.

As of Friday, 30,768 foreigners live in Guangzhou, mostly from the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States, Canada and Russia. Almost 15 percent of foreigners in the city are from African countries.

Wen promised to further expand Sino-foreign cooperation with major cities around the world to fight the pandemic, share the city's experience and provide procurement convenience in the months ahead.

Guangzhou has 14 monitoring and inspection centers for COVID-19 where foreigners and others returning from high-risk nations are guided to report their health condition and undergo nucleic acid testing, Wen said.

Liu said city departments have established a task force of senior medical experts and doctors to offer medical treatment to all patients in the city.

"All patients, no matter where they come from, are treated equally in the city," he said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.