(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Shanghai has brought in new measures to control imported cases of Covid-19 from non-key coronavirus-hit nations following yesterday's expansion of a list of key Covid-19 countries to 24. Customs officials at airports will now impose on-the-spot inspections and quarantine for all new overseas arrivals to the city.

Customs will implement 100 percent on-the-spot quarantine, body temperature tests, health declaration card reviews, and customs epidemiological investigations for all inbound passengers, significantly boosting the proportion of nucleic acid tests on them, Xu Wei, a local government spokesman, said today.

Shanghai will also strengthen punishment for misleading health declarations, and guide arrivals to be truthful about their health status.

Starting today, Shanghai added Australia, Malaysia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Finland, Qatar, Canada, and Saudi Arabia to the earlier list of 16 key epidemic countries. They were South Korea, Italy, Iran, Japan, France, Spain, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Austria.

All Chinese and foreigners who have a travel or residence history in these 24 countries within 14 days of their entering Shanghai will be put under home or centralized quarantine in accordance with regulations. Shanghai will also adjust the list of key countries according to the global pandemic's development, Xu added.

Shanghai has had no local confirmed Covid-19 case for 18 days in a row, according to official figures released today. The city reported eight confirmed imported cases yesterday. It had a total of 33 confirmed imported cases and 23 suspected imported cases that were under investigation as of the end of yesterday.

Editor: Peter Thomas