#shenzen

Hong Kong residents crossing border at Shenzhen Bay Port can soon book Covid-19 tests online as eager travellers throng checkpoint | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/3184784/hong-kong-residents-crossing-border-shenzhen-bay-port-can-soon-book

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Hong Kong residents crossing border at Shenzhen Bay Port can soon book Covid-19 tests online as eager travellers throng checkpoint.New system is aimed at easing crowding at the crossing point as travellers head to mainland China. Traffic has intensified after the Shenzhen government increased quota of quarantine hotel rooms
Hong Kong is set to allow travellers heading to mainland China through Shenzhen Bay Port to book Covid-19 tests online as residents continue to swamp the checkpoint and ignore the government’s advice to delay trips over the border.Shenzhen authorities also announced on Sunday a new measure to crack down on scalping of quarantine hotel rooms by allocating them through drawing lots following discussions with the Hong Kong government.Shenzhen Bay Port, one of just two land passenger crossings that remain open amid the pandemic, has been packed with crowds in the morning over the weekend after the Guangdong provincial city boosted the number of quarantine hotel rooms by 700 to 2,000 a day and added additional spots for those in need.
As seen during a Post visit on Sunday, queues snaked outside the checkpoint as hundreds of travellers from Hong Kong waited to undergo the required nucleic acid test before crossing.Planning to visit his relatives on the mainland, Yuen said the Shenzhen government should have made more quarantine hotel rooms available.The 2,000 a day is definitely not enough,” he said. “Residents need to go to Shenzhen. But the issue of quarantine hotel rooms should be addressed first. I was lucky to lock in my booking early on.”Alan Wong, a 49-year-old construction company manager, was unable to book a quarantine hotel room in Shenzhen and his company paid a scalper 2,300 yuan (US$293) to secure a reservation one week in advance.
Wong said that while it was fairer to use the quota system, the chances of failing to get a hotel room created too many uncertainties for people who needed to do business.“It’s just like waiting for the results of the Mark Six or a Home Ownership Scheme ballot. You’ll never know until the last minute,” Wong said.Secretary for Health Dr Lo Chung-mau visited the checkpoint in the afternoon. Earlier in the day, Lo explained in a TV interview that quarantine-free travel with the mainland remained unfeasible at the moment, as allowing it would require a significant change to the nation’s anti-pandemic policies. Lo added that Hong Kong residents needed to follow the mainland’s requirements when travelling there.
‘Faster, daily Covid PCR tests could replace Hong Kong hotel quarantine’
9 Jul 2022
A Hong Kong government spokesman said travellers would need to wait for about three hours to receive their Covid-19 test result at the control point and urged them to cross the boundary in the afternoon to avoid the morning rush.Under the coming booking arrangement, which is expected to be ready in a week, travellers must obtain a spot at a Shenzhen quarantine hotel and reserve a time for the Covid-19 test at the border crossing on the day of departure.Hongkongers hoping to travel across the border previously needed to book a room at a quarantine hotel through a government website on a first-come, first-served basis. But to combat the scalping, the Shenzhen government would allocate rooms to travellers by drawing lots, taking into consideration supply and demand, as well as the travel history of the applicant, authorities said. A traveller can only make one booking for the same date and results will be announced at 8pm daily.Society for Community Organisation deputy director Sze Lai-shan said: “The problem now is not much about online booking or queuing at the control point, but more about insufficient hotel rooms for quarantine on the Shenzhen side.
“The online booking thing is a crowd management measure. It does not mean more people can go to the mainland unless the Shenzhen side makes more quarantine hotel rooms available to meet demand.”Legislator Edward Leung Hei, of the Beijing-friendly Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, urged the government to increase shuttle bus services for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to allow more visitors to enter the mainland using that access point.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#shenzen#frontiere#circulationtransfrontalière#quarantaine#hotel#sante

Coronavirus: eastern Chinese city ramps up zero-Covid strategy with tests every 48 hours | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3175954/coronavirus-eastern-chinese-city-ramps-zero-covid-strategy-tests

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Coronavirus: eastern Chinese city ramps up zero-Covid strategy with tests every 48 hours. Hangzhou in Zhejiang province has set up around 6,500 testing stations for residents and visitors. Different strategies to handle outbreaks in Shenzhen and Shanghai cited as shaping vigilant approach and routine testing policy
China’s city of Hangzhou has adopted a frequent Covid-19 testing routine since Thursday to beat the highly transmissible Omicron variant, in line with the country’s “early detection” goal under its dynamic zero-Covid policy.
The provincial capital of eastern Zhejiang province and home to 12 million people has set up around 6,500 testing stations for residents and visitors to get PCR tested every 48 hours, according to local authorities.
From Saturday, residents must show their test results to enter their residential areas, offices, public transport, public venues and schools, it added. Those who enter the city should be tested in the 48 hours before arriving.Shanghai fences in residential buildings to combat Covid-19
Ying Xumin, deputy director of the Hangzhou health commission, said the frequent testing routine was key to detecting infections as early as possible and minimising the risk of spread in public venues.“Hangzhou faces a severe risk of imported cases [from other parts of the country]. The Labour Day [five-day] holiday is around the corner and there will be more movement of people and gatherings.“We launched the routine testing service to secure the hard-won results of Covid-19 control and maintain the normal operations of businesses and life in the city,” he said, adding that 7.4 million people were tested on Thursday.On Friday, the city reported seven new asymptomatic infections. One was an arrival from outside the city identified at the railway station and the rest were detected within local areas already under isolation.Li Bin, vice-minister of the National Health Commission, said on Friday the country aimed to act fast to beat the rapid transmission of Omicron.“The Omicron variant is highly infectious, transmits quickly and often unnoticed, and causes a high proportion of asymptomatic infections,” Li said. “[We] use both rapid antigen and PCR tests to identify infections as early as possible.”He said all local governments should stick to the dynamic zero-Covid policy and control local outbreaks to avoid infections spilling over to other parts of the country.“If certain places do not resolutely adhere to the policy … it might become the ‘transmitter’ and ‘magnifier’ of outbreaks, causing heavy loss of life and property and seriously affecting economic and social development,” he said.“We encourage local governments to improve precision in Covid-19 control to achieve the greatest results with the least cost.”Beijing’s policy is to contain local outbreaks with strict preventive measures, despite much of the rest of the world embracing a live-with-the-virus mentality.There have been calls from foreign businesses to resume international exchanges and ease pressure on the industrial and services sectors, both hit hard by the tough control measures.China’s insistence on zero-Covid has been controversial as people question the high cost of the social and economic disruption.China’s harsh Covid restrictions leave thousands of migrant workers in limbo. Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said Hangzhou’s frequent testing routine used PCR tests, instead of at-home rapid antigen tests, so authorities could be sure they knew the test results under a centralised system and could follow up with isolation orders.
“The country is adjusting its zero-Covid policy, drawing on the experience of Shanghai’s outbreak. The megacity did not act fast enough to nip the crisis in the bud, causing huge social and economic costs.
“Other places are now learning from Shenzhen which launched mass testing once a few cases were identified to stop the spread as early as possible.
“That also means all places have to be vigilant and on high alert all the time to prepare for the return of the virus and make testing part of their routine, even if there is no local outbreak,” Huang said, adding that the practice might continue over the next six months, and become more widely adopted nationwide. In March, China approved Covid-19 rapid antigen tests for public use and it adopts a dual testing strategy – both PCR and RAT – for “early detection”. PCR test samples are tested for viral genetic material in a laboratory and results usually take between one day and a few days.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#chine#shangai#shenzen#zerocovid#travailleurmigrant#isolement#depistage#economie#globalisation#confinement

Coronavirus Hong Kong: use mainland Chinese help well, plan for next stage of battle and ensure social stability, top Beijing official tells local government | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3170759/coronavirus-hong-kong-use-mainland-chinese-help

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Coronavirus Hong Kong: use mainland Chinese help well, plan for next stage of battle and ensure social stability, top Beijing official tells local governmentHong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong says city still facing uphill battle against pandemic. At high-level meeting in Shenzhen, he calls on local administration to plan for next phase of crisis, with focus on ‘three reductions’, referring to infections, severe cases and deaths
Hong Kong’s government should distribute aid from the central government properly and plan for the next stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in an orderly way, a top Beijing official has told a high-level meeting in Shenzhen on the health crisis facing the financial hub. Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) director Xia Baolong also emphasised the need for local officials to safeguard social stability, according to the Hong Kong China News Agency. He was chairing the meeting on Wednesday after flying back to Shenzhen from the capital where he attended the annual “two sessions” of the nation’s parliament and top advisory body.Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said Beijing believed reforms were needed after the pandemic was under control, such as improving the government’s managerial abilities and the leadership capabilities of the executive branch.It was the ninth meeting of the tripartite coordination task force, involving Hong Kong and mainland officials, and the second in less than a week, with the last one taking place on March 11.Xia said in the latest meeting that the current epidemic situation in the city was still serious and the fight against the virus has remained an uphill battle.
During the meeting, he also spoke via video link with teams sent to assist Hong Kong and called on the local government to speed up the distribution of Chinese medicine, boost the occupancy rate of isolation facilities and make good use of the medical professionals sent from the mainland.
Xia went on to instruct the local administration to plan ahead for the next phase of the outbreak, focusing on the strategy of “three reductions, three focuses and one priority”.The first element refers to reducing infections, severe cases and deaths. The second involves three specific areas of focus: boosting vaccinations among the elderly and enforcing closed-loop staffing arrangements in care homes; strengthening the work of clinics, hospitals and isolation facilities; and identifying high-risk premises for children, seniors and the disabled, and stepping up protections there.
Think tank vice-president Lau said Xia’s remarks not only focused on offering guidance and supervision, but also showed that Beijing would hold Hong Kong’s government accountable for failing to control the epidemic.
“There is a need for improvement of our health care system and formulating contingency plans within the government on how to deal with such kinds of crisis.”Central authorities would look at improving the local government’s managerial abilities and its executive role, Lau said, adding the city needed to “prepare well for any upcoming sixth or seventh waves”.
Lau suggested it was very rare that Beijing had to be so “hands-on” on Hong Kong’s issues, calling it proof that the city government’s poor handling of the outbreak had already greatly affected national interests.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#macau#hongkong#pekin#sante#zerocovid#politique#retsrictionsanitaire#shenzen#pandemie

Shenzhen Airport adds six long haul flights in a bid to win back traffic from Hong Kong | CAPA - Centre for Aviation

▻http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/shenzhen-airport-adds-six-long-haul-flights-in-a-bid-to-win-back-

signalé par Pierre Ageron sur Twitter

Limited long haul flights effectively operating as charters (such as to Mauritius) have been a feature at Shenzhen. The airport’s first regular long haul route only started in Jan-2016, with a China Southern service to Sydney. Shenzhen’s absence from long haul has been conspicuous: its GDP is one of the highest in China and companies have significant intercontinental business, all of this a mixture for long haul demand.

The neighbouring city Guangzhou is the hub for China Southern, and while it does not have the long haul proliferation of Beijing or Shanghai, it has had services to key cities. Guangzhou’s presence and that of closer Hong Kong have created alternative points for passengers reaching to Shenzhen. It has not helped that local airline Shenzhen Airlines has had stunted short haul international development and has not acquired widebody aircraft, despite airlines smaller than it flying widebodies and going long haul.

#chine #shenzen #transport_aérien

Vanke Centre in Shenzhen by Steven Holl | Buildings | Architectural Review

▻http://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/vanke-centre-in-shenzhen-by-steven-holl/8600441.article?WT.tsrc=email&WT.mc_id=Newsletter247

Vanke Centre in Shenzhen by Steven Holl

1 June 2010 | By Rob Gregory

Steven Holl Architects inspire Chinese developers to raise their game and create a mamouth groundscape above a new public park. Photography by Christian Richters

Steven Holl’s Beijing-based partner, Li Hu, describes the Vanke Centre as the firm’s ‘greatest and most ambitious building’ to date. Educated in China and America before working in Steven Holl Architects’ Manhattan office, Hu returned to his native country four years ago to find a much-altered civic situation. ‘I realised immediately how much things had changed,’ he says, ‘as the quality public spaces I remembered had almost entirely disappeared, replaced by a fenced-off, gated, and overly privatised form of urbanism.’ This focused Holl and Hu’s ambition for the vast private development they were tackling: a 120,000m² mixed-use campus for China’s largest residential property company, Vanke.

#architecture #shenzen #chine