Residents line up for city-wide nucleic acid testing in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province on January 16, 2022. Photo: VCG

Three districts in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province vowed to reward tip-offs as much as 100,000 yuan ($15,786) to combat activities of smuggling and illegal border crossing, the districts' epidemic prevention and control headquarters said on Tuesday. 

The authorities issued the notification after 15 people from Hong Kong illegally entered the mainland through Zhuhai in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Hong Kong media reports. 

Among the 15 smugglers, two have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive in Chenzhou, Central China's Hunan Province and another two have also been confirmed as positive in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. 

According to the police in Chenzhou, the two confirmed infections smuggled from Hong Kong surnamed Xiao and Deng arrived in Doumen district in Zhuhai around 4 am on Monday. With vehicles and mobile phones prepared in advance, they traveled to Chenzhou. 

So far, the two suspects have been placed under investigation by the local police with the charge of the crime of impairing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, according to the statement released by the local public security bureau on Wednesday.

Twelve of the 15 smugglers have been traced down and their movement history involves Guangdong, Hunan and Fujian provinces. 

The three districts issued similar notifications announcing that the local governments decided to reward anti-smuggling tips in order to mobilize the general public as wide as possible to participate in the campaign to fight against smuggling and illegal border crossing, and effectively prevent imported cases of COVID-19 from overseas. 

The notifications specified that tip-offs help to catch transportation tools for illegally crossing the border will be rewarded as much as 100,000 per vehicle or per ship. 

Rewards of tip-offs will be up to 30,000 yuan for each organizer and 10,000 yuan for each person illegally crossing the border if they are caught. 

Plus, tip-offs of smuggling activities which are verified will be rewarded as much as 50,000 yuan. 

Since the COVID-19 first broke out, campaigns of anti-smuggling and anti-illegally crossing the border have been launched in many cities across Chinese mainland as the risks of imported cases are escalating especially after the more contagious variants of Delta and Omicron were identified. 

Aihui district in border city Heihe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province issued rewards as much as 50,000 yuan last November for clues related to illegal border crossing after a flare-up broke out in late October. 

Global Times