Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, August 22 (TMTPOST) -- Many passengers on the Z22 train from Lhasa, Tibet to Beijing have been confirmed as coronavirus carriers. As of last Saturday, at least 33 passengers from the train who travelled to seven provinces and municipalities such as Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Beijing, Shandong, Gansu and Hunan have tested positive.

The Z22 operating route from Lhasa to Beijing has been shortened to Beijing to Xining, with the Xining-Beijing section out of service from August 19 to September 10.

Passengers on the Z166 train from Lhasa to Shanghai had also tested positive, including those who end up in Qinghai, Henan and many other places. A university student took the Z166 train and unfortunately became a close contact of a confirmed patient. The close contact has been quarantined, and his contacts have been taken to a designated hotel for at least 7 days of quarantine. The university has taken measures to seal the building, leading to the cancellation of the military training.

July to September is one of peak seasons for railway transportation in China. Since July, the national railway has transported an average of 7.13 million passengers and 10.42 million tons of goods per day as well as a total of 384 tons of medical supplies and daily necessities for pandemic control and prevention.

Currently, there are confirmed Covid-19 cases all over the country. As the main means of transportation in China, the railway system covers almost all regions of the country. One single confirmed case could set off a chain reaction across the country.

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) has held a special meeting to discuss strengthening measures to prevent and control the virus spread along the railway system given the recent coronavirus outbreaks.

Railway stations will also adopt "static management" measures for general passenger trains starting from and passing through areas hit by the pandemic by restricting the movement of passengers within their own carriage.

Meanwhile, given the current situation, China Railway will strengthen its emergency response capability by cooperating with regional pandemic prevention departments to provide timely passenger information, collaborating with the epidemiological survey, implementing centralized control of relevant train and station crews, closing carriage with a coronavirus infection and implementing disinfection promptly.