'Electronic pass' for courier staff to ensure delivery safety
A courier staff delivers online orders for residents in Shanghai's suburban Songjiang District.
Shanghai will issue an "electronic pass" to each delivery staff that includes the PCR test report and health code to further guarantee the safety of deliveries, according to the city's commerce commission.
Nearly 20,000 delivery personnel have returned to work amid the COVID-19 resurgence and are delivering food and other daily necessities to residents, especially those in locked-down communities.
To ensure their health as well as delivery safety, the commission will issue the electronic pass based on the "white lists" of both courier firms and delivery employees as their work certificates and passes, Zhou Lan, deputy director of the commission, explained.
The electronic pass will display the staff's negative PCR test report within two days and their health code for the convenience of inspection, she told the city's daily COVID-19 press briefing on Tuesday.
Local authorities require each delivery staff to receive two antigen self-tests a day, followed by a PCR test and another antigen test on the next day.
Anyone concealing the antigen test result or working after getting infected with COVID-19 will face legal punishment.
Zhou noted that delivery staff are now required to scan their real-time Suishenma code to accept the PCR test, starting from Tuesday, rather than the nucleic acid code, which can be used offline, to ensure implementation of the testing stipulation.
A courier staff delivers online orders for Songjiang District residents.
Mobile PCR testing sites
Courier companies are also required to take charge of daily testing and health monitoring of their delivery staff.
Meanwhile, Shanghai will increase the number of nucleic acid testing spots to meet rising demand as more industrial companies begin resuming operations and production.
Executive Vice Mayor Wu Qing announced that three kinds of testing sites – fixed, convenient and mobile – will be built across Shanghai.
The fixed testing sites have already been set up at about 200 local hospitals and medical institutes, while the convenient testing sites resemble streetside newspaper booths, once a common sight in the city, according to Wu.
The mobile sites will be similar to breakfast carts, which can be quickly set up in response to any emergency situation.
These additional testing sites will be mainly set up in local communities, Metro and bus stations, airports, ports and railway stations as well as office buildings, industrial parks in central business districts, campuses, supermarkets, drugstores and large construction sites.
These sites generally attract a big amount of people and have good ventilation, the vice mayor pointed out.
