Beijing To Reopen Schools, But Fears Grow At Border

Beijing schools closed by the coronavirus outbreak will reopen to senior high school and middle school pupils, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday, citing a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.

Senior high school pupils are set to return to campus on April 27, and senior pupils at middle schools will return to campus on May 11, said spokesman Li Yi at a press conference, according to the CCTV report.

However elsewhere on the mainland, concern is growing of a new coronavirus outbreak, driven by imported cases, especially from Russia. There were 99 new cases on Saturday.

"The risk of imported cases has increased dramatically," Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou, told a news conference on Sunday.

Guangzhou is enforcing anti-virus measures on anyone who enters the city from across the national border, regardless of nationality, race or gender, foreign affairs official Liu Baochun said at the same event.

"We hope foreigners can strictly abide by anti-virus rules as Chinese do," he said.

His comments came after several African countries demanded that China address their concerns that Africans, in particular in Guangzhou, are being mistreated and harassed.

In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, which reported 21 new, Russia-imported cases on Saturday, the local government said its Suifenhe border with Russia will remain closed after April 13.

The provincial capital, Harbin, will implement a 28-day quarantine measure for all arrivals from abroad, its government said. People entering the city will be held at a quarantine centre for 14 days at first, followed by another 14 days at home.

They will also be subjected to two nucleic acid tests and an antibody test.

The government will also lock down for 14 days residential units in which confirmed and asymptomatic coronavirus cases are found, it added. (Reuters)