A volunteer works at a nucleic acid testing site in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Aug 7, 2022. Prevention and control measures have been taken in Sanya to fight against the new resurgence of COVID-19 in the city. Photo:Xinhua

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Saturday inspected COVID-19 epidemic control work in virus-hit South China's Hainan Province and urged better resources coordination, firm and decisive measures to achieve zero cases at the community level as soon as possible.

Sun inspected Sanya Phoenix International Airport, Sanya COVID-19 prevention and control command center, a community and a makeshift hospital to learn about local command of epidemic control, arrangement for stranded tourists, virus control at communities and treatment at hospital. 

Sun urged efforts to coordinate resources within the province for ensuring testing capacity, makeshift hospital beds and quarantine rooms, enhancing support for places hit the hardest. 

Hainan's current challenge is insufficient quarantine and treatment places, for which Sun required exploring the potential of hotels and accelerating the building of makeshift hospitals to ensure all close contacts and people who test positive to be put under corresponding facilities.

The sample collection, testing, reporting and hospitalizing process should be optimized. Sun raised the requirement of tracking a positive case within 8 hours while guaranteeing residents' basic living needs and medical service needs. 

There are around 150,000 tourists stranded in the province. The vice premier urged to speed up the process of arranging for the return trips of stranded travelers and required the province to make risk assessment to prevent spillover of the epidemic. 

The latest COVID-19 outbreak in Hainan is still evolving at a high level and 16,700 medical staff from 20 provinces and regions, along with testing capacity of 1.97 million tubes a day, have been sent to aid Hainan's fight against the virus. 

Hainan Province reported 594 confirmed local COVID-19 cases and 832 asymptomatic cases on Friday with Sanya city, hit the hardest in the province, registering 472 confirmed cases and 760 asymptomatic ones. Sanya had 2,633 confirmed and 2,826 asymptomatic cases so far in the latest wave. There are 293 high infection risk areas and 94 medium risk areas in the province. 

Global Times