Beijing is to step up quarantine on the large number of floating
population as more and more people from outside began reentering
the city to find jobs or do business, a municipal official said
Tuesday.
He
said so far there was no cluster infection by severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) among the floating population in the
city. By mid May, a total of more than 2.63 million people from
outside Beijing lived in the city, some 600,000 less than the
number in the end of April.
Ji
Lin, deputy director of the Beijing municipal joint leading group
on SARS control, told a press conference Tuesday morning that
Beijing would impose strict quarantine on the floating population
as they enter the city, their residence in neighborhood communities
and places where they work or do business.
Beijing also required the migrant population to register at local
neighborhood communities as they rent or move in housing in the
city, Ji said. He said municipal government personnel would inspect
hygienic conditions of the housing rent and forbid the lease of
those failing to meet quarantine standards.
He
said the municipal government also asked the house owners and
employers to shoulder responsibility of SARS prevention among the
floating population.
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2003)