Working staff wearing protective suits wait at the entrance to Suifenhe port. (Photo: Courtesy Cao Jie)

South China's Hainan Province has restricted access to people from regions that have seen a surge in imported cases, including the China-Russia border city Suifenhe and two districts in Guangzhou, requiring them to present a negative test result before setting foot on the island.

Hainan government said the regulation is to avoid community transmissions caused by imported cases. 

Hainan government listed six regions as requiring special attention - Suifenhe in Heilongjiang Province, Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Guangzhou's Yuexiu and Baiyun districts, Shenzhen's Bao'an district and city of Jieyang in Guangdong Province.

Both Suifenhe and Manzhouli border Russia and have seen a surge in im-ported cases. Suifenhe reported a total of 334 imported cases as of press time on Wednesday. 

Guangdong and Heilongjiang reported 189 and 340 total imported cases re-spectively as of Wednesday. 

People with traveling and living history of the above-mentioned places must take nuclear acid test in the latest seven days and present a negative result to enter the island province. Before and after entering Hainan, they must report their health status to the authority. 

For people from the six regions and who have already landed in Hainan, they are required to take a test for coronavirus if they did not take it before. 

For those testing positive but without symptoms, they would be transferred to designated hospitals. 

Hainan has closed all its passenger channels of international ports to reduce the flow of people into the island, in response to the rising imported infections in China. Also, the province vowed to strengthen measures to find and treat asymptomatic patients, according to the announcement.

The province has recorded zero new cases in 54 consecutive days as of Tuesday. 

Some analysts supported the regulations, saying it necessary to tighten ac-cess from Suifenhe in Heilongjiang as many people in the province are fond of taking a vacation in the southern province of Hainan. 

A Hainan resident in Haikou surnamed Wang told the Global Times on Wednesday that the regulation is timely as the public doesn't want more im-ported cases or community transmissions.

Wang also refuted the concern by some netizens on social media if such regulations could cause regional discrimination.

"I don't think it's regional discrimination as it is a way to protect all Chinese residents from the potential second wave of outbreak amid the pandem-ic…Special time needs special efforts."