Anti-epidemic staff work at a lockdown community in Luohu district, Shenzhen on January 12, 2022. Photo: VCG

Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province tightens COVID-19 controls for Guangdong-Hong Kong cross-border truck drivers to prevent imported cases amid new Omicron outbreak in Shenzhen.

Starting from Tuesday, Guangdong-Hong Kong cross-border truck drivers will be required to provide a negative nucleic acid test certificate taken within 24 hours to enter the city, and take two acid tests when they enter Shenzhen for the first time every day. 

Nucleic acid tests will be conducted once a day for cross-border truck drivers during their stay at designated accommodation sites.

Drivers who return a positive result for nucleic acid test at the port of entry or classified as close contacts and sub-close contacts determined by the mainland health and disease control department will not be allowed to enter Shenzhen for 21 days from the date of confirmation.

Cross-border drivers exempted from the quarantine requirement will be given a yellow code connected to their Guangdong Health Code system. After entering the mainland, drivers must strictly follow the closed-loop management of the declaration track, and are prohibited from entering communities and public places in mainland. 

Shenzhen is battling a renewed outbreak of the Omicron variant, reporting 30 new confirmed cases and six asymptomatic infections on Sunday while Hong Kong reported 26,026 cases on Sunday.

As of Friday Shenzhen has reported an accumulated190 positive cases from Hong Kong cross-border drivers since February 4.