Guangzhou.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
Travelers from Ebola-hit countries who are arriving at the airport in Guangzhou, Guangdong province are given a cellphone with a prepaid SIM card and a medicine kit containing a thermometer as well as a map of the city.
Handing out the unusual items to the travelers is part of measures the local authorities devised to keep Ebola out of the city, which is hosting more than 200,000 Africans, according to the Global Times.
The visitors given the kits are required to turn on the cellphones within days 21 of arriving in the country; otherwise, they can be blacklisted by security bureaus, according to Xinhua News Agency.
A businessman visiting from West Africa, where the most number of Ebola cases in this latest outbreak has been recorded, was contacted every now and then by customs officials and asked how he was.
In addition to the routine calls, he was also offered a free hotel room where his temperature was regularly taken and his belongings disinfected by medical workers donning protective suits.
Another anti-Ebola measure being made by local authorities is having a team composed of a policeman, a medical worker and a translator visit travelers from Ebola-hit countries where they are staying and look for any symptoms of the disease.
Some travelers have frowned upon the efforts, calling them excessive.
A businessman from Congo said that a partner visiting from the country who was checking into a hotel was told he should stay at a hotel designated by the local police.
To date, Ebola has killed more than 5,170 people in eight countries, including the worst-hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
