A coronavirus prevention instructor offers guidance at an office building in the Caoyang Community of Putuo District.

A group of coronavirus prevention instructors have been appointed to help some of Shanghai's downtown businesses return to work with healthy operations amid the ongoing epidemic.

Some 50 community-based general practitioners in Putuo District have joined the city's first batch of anti-epidemic instructors. They've entered local office buildings, innovation parks and companies to help implement preventive measures against novel coronavirus pneumonia.

In Putuo's Taopu Town, a major business area in the district, over 10,600 employees have returned to their workplaces in about 900 companies, accounting for half of the total in the town.

The percentage is expected to rise to 80 percent by the end of February, said Lu Jiang, Party secretary of the town.

Anti-epidemic instructors, each taking charge of several office buildings or an innovation park, offer professional guidance on disinfection, collection of used masks as well as the quarantine and transport of those with high temperature or close contact with coronavirus patients.

Zhang Luyan, a doctor with Changfeng NeighborhoodHealth Center, received an urgent call on the first day of her appointment as an anti-epidemic instructor from a nearby office building on Sunday.

An employee working at Changfeng Joy City was told by local disease control officials that he must undergo quarantine immediately, because a ride-hailing driver who took him to work on February 11 was confirmed to be infected with coronavirus.

His colleagues were anxious about their own risks for infection. Zhang checked the office, conducted a thorough disinfection and told everyone to relax.

"There is no need to worry because the office is quite large with few staff and the employee just had close contact (with an infected person)," Zhang said.

An employee receives a temperature check at an office in the ZhenruSubcenter of Putuo.

An employee from Yichang in central China's Hubei Province, heart of the coronavirus epidemic, returned to work at the East China Electric Power Design Institute Co in Putuo on Monday.

Another instructor was soon dispatched from the Caoyang NeighborhoodHealth Center to transport the employee to a designated hotel for quarantine.

A mobile phone app has also been developed in Putuo for returning employees to register and provide information about their health condition. At Xincaoyang Park in Changzheng Town, a center for local software firms, employees are required to show a QR code on the app before entering their workplaces.

The app has been promoted across office buildings in the district.

"With these efforts, we expect 70 percent of our employees can come back to work next week and help bring the company's operation back on track," said Zhou Bai, general manager of Schneider Shanghai Industrial Control Co.

About 200 employees among a total of 500 workers and 50 executives at the company's plant in Taopu Town have returned to work. Each of them is required to have a temperature check before getting on or off the shuttle bus, as well as every three hours at the workplace, Zhou said.

Any employee detected with a high temperature will be sent to a designated quarantine room, and the company will call an anti-epidemic instructor, Zhou said.

Screens are installed as a virus prevention measure at the canteen of Schneider Shanghai Industrial Control Co.