A medical worker collects swab samples from a resident for COVID-19 nucleic acid test in Liwan District of Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, May 27, 2021. Photo:Xinhua

On Saturday, areas of medium and high COVID-19 risk were cleared in Guangzhou, capital city of South China's Guangdong Province, after a month-long fight against the flare-up.

China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan told reporters on Friday that Guangdong Province has achieved good results in the prevention and control of the 1st community transmission of the Delta variant.

Guangzhou, which receives nearly 90 percent of international passengers to the country, plans to build an international health station with 5,000 independent rooms to quarantine international arrivals in order to prevent COVID-19 imported cases amidst threats posed by the Delta variant. 

Zhong said that the international health station will serve as quarantine hotels, which are designed to quarantine international passengers and COVID-19 close contacts. 

The current hotels which are used to quarantine people from high-risk regions do not meet the quarantine requirement, moreover, Guangzhou receives nearly 90 percent of the international passengers who come to China, showing the pressure of fending off risks of imported cases, Zhong noted. 

Photo:VCG

The top epidemiologist revealed that the international health station that Guangzhou plans to build will cover an area of 250,000 square meters with 5,000 independent rooms in accordance with strict quarantine standards to prevent cross infection, Zhong said. 

He also revealed that Guangzhou's neighboring city Shenzhen is also preparing to build such health station to reduce COVID-19 imported cases. 

Zhong warned that the highly contagious Delta variant is likely to be a major prevalent virus strain in the future and it is necessary to be highly vigilant against the risks of the mutated strain spilling out to surrounding communities and other cities and provinces, as well as the risks of its spread to schools.

The mutated variant Delta had triggered clustered COVID-19 cases in Guangzhou and Shenzhen the past few weeks. Since May 21, the epidemic in Guangzhou recorded a total of 167 cases and the Delta mutated variant in Shenzhen caused seven infection cases as of Thursday.