Photo: Yang Hui/GT

All schools in Shanghai are forbidden from opening before the end of February, according to an announcement by the city's Education Commission on Wednesday. The start date for the new semester has not been decided yet. Previously, the authority extended the school holidays to February 16 as an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Shanghai is going through the first wave of epidemic spread currently and the second wave is coming soon as a big passenger flow will return from other cities after the holiday, Wu Fan, an expert from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Shanghai authorities asked people who will return to the city to report their health condition online before departure, so as to improve the efficiency of passing through checkpoints at city entrances, roads and ports and relieve traffic jams.

According to Wu, it now takes only one day on average to confirm whether a patient is infected with the coronavirus in Shanghai. The number of new cases in the city is dropping, which means periodic success has been achieved in the city.

Shanghai has been reinforcing control and prevention across the city, with a large number of personnel and communities involved. More than 42,000 person-time of urban management personnel have been engaged in inspecting wet markets, commercial blocks and residential quarters from January 22 to February 3 to improve the community environment.

Above 5,000 police officers are working on the frontline to ensure necessary quarantine of infected people and possible virus carriers. Public security authorities said that they will hold zero tolerance toward all kinds of illegal crimes related to the epidemic prevention and control, including refusing to stay quarantined as per requirements and causing spread of the infectious disease by concealing health conditions.

Official statistics show that the city has been enforcing disinfection among 13,000 residential quarters, 8,900 community fitness spaces, various public toilets and domestic garbage collection areas, as well as storage and transportation facilities.

"None of us is an outsider in face of the prevention and control of any infectious disease," Wu said, reminding the public to do cleaning and ventilation regularly at home or workplaces and not going to crowded places.

Shanghai reported 243 confirmed cases as of 12 pm on Wednesday, with eight in critical condition, 15 recovered and discharged from hospitals and 1 dead; 237 suspected cases are being monitored.