On January 28, Ni Yuefeng, Minister of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), visited Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) to inspect the ongoing work of prevention and control of the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia.

Ni inspected the clearance of imported supplies for epidemic prevention and control at the Customs Inspection Center in the airport, requiring the Customs to optimize its working mechanism and minimize the release time of such supplies. At present, Imported X-ray tubes used in CT scan machines, PCR reagents and other supplies for epidemic prevention and control all go through expedited customs clearance.

At the customs checkpoint for passengers in Terminal 3, Ni inspected the work of temperature monitoring, medical screening, examination of the Entry/Exit Health Declaration Form, joint operation for epidemic prevention and control, patient transfer, among others, and visited customs field officers fulfilling duties at the front line. 

To respond to the epidemic situation, Beijing Customs selected 180 customs officers from the entire customs district to strengthen the workforce at the BCIA, and deployed an additional 38 infrared thermometers at the customs checkpoints. All inbound and outbound passengers are subject to temperature monitoring as required in the Port Quarantine Technical Plan formulated by the GACC.

By 06:00 a.m. of January 28, a total of 78 suspected cases of the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia have been found during health screening among outbound passengers at ports across China, with 2 of them showing positive results on nucleic acid testing, while 96 suspected cases have been found among inbound passengers, with 11 being positive on nucleic acid testing. Quarantine efforts have been further strengthened for passengers who are re-entering China after leaving the country from Wuhan. China Customs have properly handled all suspected and test-positive cases under the national joint epidemic prevention and control mechanism.