In the Chinese city of Guangzhou, hotels are quickly becoming overwhelmed as local residents and international travelers must go through a mandatory quarantine period from the coronavirus and its highly transmissible Delta variant. It's a trend that is starting to pick up across Asia, bringing to mind nightmare scenes from a year and a half ago.
The gateway to China
The southern Chinese city plans to mitigate the overload with a new facility it will cover 250.000 square meters (2,7 million square feet) and will house 5.000 quarantine and containment spaces. China's leading epidemiologist and respiratory expert, Zhong Nanshan, notes that while Guangdong province has become China's main portal for receiving and quarantining those entering the country, local hotels are not equipped to stop the spread.
The news of the planned quarantine facility was announced on Friday 2 July by Nanshan himself, who in China is described as "the public face of China's war against the coronavirus". according to South China Morning Post, Zhong commented in an interview that in the quarantine hub under construction “people will be isolated according to strict rules to ensure that they do not infect each other. '
A city in quarantine
According to Reuters, Guangdong province reported 168 confirmed infections between May 21 and June 21, with nearly 90% of them in its capital, Guangzhou. Even amid mass testing and quarantine measures, 80 to 90 percent of international travelers enter the country through Guangzhou, making the city a high-risk area.
The long-term Chinese plan is to build similar quarantine facilities in several cities: after Guangzhou, Shenzhen is already planned. “Otherwise,” Zhong warns, “when there are many cases in the future and we have to quarantine them in hotels, the economy will be heavily affected and we will no longer be able to isolate them.” He didn't say "if". He actually said “when”.
