Nonessential cars banned from roads in Shenzhen

Only a few vehicles are seen on trunk roads in Minzhi Subdistrict, Longhua District. Sun Yuchen

Futian, Longhua, Longgang and Pingshan districts in south China's Shenzhen city have imposed temporary traffic control measures, allowing only vehicles with special permits to run on roads.

The measure will remain valid through Sunday, according to notices by the authorities of the four districts.

Only those vehicles deployed for COVID-19 control and essential services are allowed on the roads with the permits issued by the COVID prevention and control command offices of districts and subdistricts.

The tightened measures are aimed at cutting off the transmission of COVID-19 as early as possible and ensure the safety of residents.

While residents across the city are required to stay at home, different districts have different rules on how often residents are allowed to leave their housing compounds to purchase daily necessities. In Longhua, each household can have one person to go out for grocery purchases once every two days. Every Longgang household is allowed to make three such trips this week. While Pingshan does not set a limit on the number of such trips, Futian’s notice does not specify whether residents are allowed to leave their housing compounds to purchase daily necessities.

All the outdoor activities in housing compounds are suspended. Frontline anti-epidemic workers with a pass and work card can leave the housing compounds and urban villages to work. In emergencies like medical treatments, residents can call community workstations for help.

People who fail to take three mandatory nucleic acid tests within this week, and those who violate control measures will be held liable for administrative or criminal punishments. In Futian and Nanshan, residents are required to undergo a test every day.

The city reported 92 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases including 37 asymptomatic infections yesterday. Thirty-nine of them were found among centrally quarantined close contacts of COVID patients and another 39 were detected during screening in key areas and among key groups of people, while the other 14 were found during citywide testing in communities.