Transport ministry prepares for remaining travel boom

About 160 million people are expected to travel in the remaining days of the Spring Festival travel rush, which ends on Feb 18, as the country continues its battle against the novel coronavirus, according to the country's top transport authority.

The estimation was made based on big data monitoring and analysis, said Xu Yahua, who heads the transportation services department at the Ministry of Transport, at a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday.

The ministry will take a series of measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in public transportation during the rush, he said.

Aside from disinfecting, ventilating and cleaning vehicles and venues for public transportation, the ministry will ramp up its efforts in checking passengers’ temperatures and transfer people found with temperatures above 37.3 C to health authorities in a timely manner, he said.

Meanwhile each public vehicle, including charted buses, will only be allowed to use half their carrying capacity. The measure is intended to ensure passengers can keep their distance from each other to lower the possibility of contracting by the virus.

Special zones could also be set in these public vehicles for those found with symptoms and need further observation on their routes, he said.

Passengers' personal information, including phone numbers, will be recorded and transferred to health authorities so they can all be traceable, he added.

The ministry will also facilitate migrant workers in major labor export regions going back to work by arranging more point-to-point chartered buses.
As of Monday, 9,000 migrant workers from Sichuan, Shandong and Zhejiang provinces have journeyed back to work via more than 200 charted buses, he said.

Public transport service in at least 38 cities has also resumed as of Monday, he said. Previously 428 cities in 27 provincial-level regions suspended public transport services due to the epidemic.