Guangzhou held a press conference on Feb 28, addressing the concerns about expat services, international students and foreign trade during the epidemic.

As of Feb 27, the city has no suspected or confirmed foreign patients. The three previous cases were all international students who had travelled to Wuhan, and all have been discharged from hospital.

The municipal FAO has linked its multilingual hotline 960169 link with Guangzhou health hotline 12320, government hotline 12345 and 120, offering 24-hour services in English, Japanese and Korean.

The department has joined hands with regional service stations to offer expats services in communities across the city. It has also provided schools for the children of expats and helped guarantee masks and hand santizer.

Deng also extended gratitude to the international Friendship Cities, foreign-funded companies and individuals that have been supporting the city during this difficult time.

As of Feb 27, Guangzhou had received about 38-million-yuan in donations from international Friendship Cities and overseas Chinese, and more than 200 million-yuan in donations from 42 foreign-funded companies.

Entry and exit department strengthens expat identity verification

Chen Wenhong, an officer of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, said the entry and exit department has not suspended visa services during the epidemic. The Department handled 1,746 visa applications from foreigners from Jan 22 to Feb 26.

"We have taken a series of measures to handle the visa problems encountered by overseas employees and international students due to the epidemic. The Department has reduced or exempted people from the punishment for overstaying based on the actual situation."

Chen stressed that the Department has strengthened expat identity verification, especially for the infected international students and close contacts with confirmed cases that have been reported by the Health Commission. It has enhanced the verification on expats from high-risk areas as well.

In addition, the Department is also working closely with enterprises and universities to help expats and international students on resuming work and study.

"As universities and colleges have postponed the opening dates, it is suggested that they handle the visa applications for international students all together after the Education Department approves school resumption, or that the Entry and Exit Department could come and collect related documents."