Passengers check in with an orderly manner at Beijing South Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2021. Beijing South Railway Station carries out a series of COVID-19 prevention and control measures to make sure the safety of passengers during the Spring Festival travel season. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

 A senior expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that most residents can return home to celebrate a normal Spring Festival with their families in spite of prevalent COVID-19 epidemic domestically. 

Most people can return home but should take precautionary measures to keep themselves safe in Spring Festival travel rush, such as wearing masks and using sanitizers, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, made the remark in a recent seminar. 

Concerns on whether Chinese people will be able to return home to celebrate a normal festival with their families are rising as the Spring Festival approaches - it's less than two months away. 

Some city governments in China had already released notices to encourage residents to stay where they are for the upcoming festival. 

The local government of Yinchuan, a city in Northwest China's Gansu Province, said on Monday that residents should not leave the city without necessary reasons. 

Zhangjiakou, a city in North China's Hebei Province, said on December 9 that all employees of governmental agencies should stay in Zhangjiakou for the festival. And those who would like to get out of the city should undergo strict applications. 

However, observers said only the National Health Commission should be entitled to decide how people should celebrate the Spring Festival amid the epidemic. 

Public health experts believe China has accumulated a great amount of anti-epidemic experience. With it the country can counter the current sporadic outbreaks and is unlikely to see the same situation as the one it faced at the beginning of 2020.

Wu Liangyou, an official from the NHC, said on Saturday that New Year and Spring Festival holidays are propelling the risks of new outbreaks, stressing the urgency for more strict and precise epidemic prevention and control measures. 

Given that more Chinese citizens will be coming back from overseas, China's top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan recently told Chinese media that it is possible that China's quarantine period will be shortened to 7 days from the current 14 days. But more tests are needed to be done before final stipulation is confirmed.

On Sunday, the NHC reported a total of 80 domestically-transmitted cases, mostly from East China's Zhejiang Province. 

Global Times