Over 4 months' follow-up observation set for discharged COVID-19 patients

COVID-19 patients who had been discharged from hospitals in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei province after recovery will be transferred to a designated hospital and undergo a 21-day medical observation before they can go home, according to Jiang Ping, director of the Shijiazhuang Fifth People's Hospital.

After returning home, they will need to start a 14-day self-quarantine at home, followed by a 3-month research follow-up by local medical organs, Jiang said Monday afternoon at a news conference.

"The measures are to ensure their health, in case someone discharged returns positive for the coronavirus," he said, adding that during the follow-up, they will receive nucleic acid testing and chest CT scans regularly.

As of Monday morning, the designated hospital has received 180 recovered COVID-19 patients, including 44 children, who are given special care by medical staff since their parents aren't around, Jiang said.

The city detected three new local confirmed cases and one asymptomatic carrier by midday on Monday, the city's vice-mayor, Meng Xianghong, said at the conference. This is a sharp decrease from two-digit increases when compared with days earlier this month.

With the COVID-19 epidemic greatly contained, Shijiazhuang started regular mass testing every other day for residents in high and medium risk areas, as well as centralized quarantine centers on Monday, to screen out any possible COVID-19 patients and further prevent the virus spreading, she said.

It now has two high-risk areas - Gaocheng district and neighboring Xinle city - and eight medium risk communities and villages. Another four counties and districts that had reported some COVID-19 cases will be managed the same as high-risk areas.

The city also has lowered the risk level for an increasing number of villages and communities in recent days. Five communities and villages were designated as low risk for virus infections on Monday, while one village in the city's Pingshan county became medium risk after two confirmed COVID-19 cases were detected earlier.

Normal work is being gradually resumed in low-risk areas.

A cargo flight carrying parcels from Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu province landed at Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport on Sunday night, the first flight since the airport suspended flights due to the epidemic earlier this year.