SHANGHAI residents who are not native to the city are being advised to spend the Spring Festival in the city, Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control authority said yesterday.

Shanghai is taking stringent prevention and control measures amid higher risks of COVID-19 contagion during the winter-spring period, especially over the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.

The authority released a number of prevention measures yesterday to tighten the health management of people coming or returning to Shanghai during the winter-spring season.

Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on February 12 this year. The traditional holiday normally sees more people on the move, more gatherings, and more imports of cold-chain food and cargo, bringing more challenges for prevention and control efforts.

To curb the pandemic, apart from returning home, family visits and essential business affairs, non-native residents are being asked to avoid leaving Shanghai, or going aboard during the period to reduce the traffic of people, according to the measures.

People from China’s medium- or high-risk areas should postpone visits to Shanghai until the areas are downgraded to low-risk.

Those from medium- or high-risk areas should inform village committees, neighborhood committees, working units or hotels within 12 hours of their arrival in Shanghai.

People from high-risk areas will undergo 14 days of central quarantine for health observation and will be tested twice, while those from medium-risk regions will receive 14 days of strict community health management, or home quarantine, along with two nucleic acid tests.

Airports, bus stations, ports and other transport terminals, along with village committees, neighborhood committees, working units, schools and hotels, have been ordered to enhance temperature checks and health QR code checks of people coming or returning to Shanghai.

The measures, which took effect yesterday, will be implemented through the end of March and adjusted according to the pandemic situation at home and abroad, the authority said.