What Efforts Have Been Made to Achieve “Zero Infection” in the CAEXPO?

（Written by Guan Qiuyun / Translated by Chen Zhiying）With a total investment of more than RMB 260 billion yuan, more than 5,000 booths, thousands of enterprises participating in the exhibition, and more than 3,000 accurate matches of Chinese and foreign merchants, the 17th China-ASEAN Expo (hereinafter referred to as the CAEXPO) made gratifying achievements. Also, as a major international economic and trade activity held under the epidemic, the CAEXPO achieved “zero infection”.

During the CAEXPO when the crowd swarmed into the exhibition hall, epidemic prevention and control undoubtedly became the focus: how to ensure that there would not be large-scale and intensive infection? Now, when we are looking back, the result of “zero infection” during the CAEXPO was hard-won. It couldn’t be achieved without scientific protection, strict supervision, and cooperation.

All-round protection

As an important driver for China and ASEAN to deepen cooperation in various fields, in the post-epidemic era the CAEXPO takes security protection as its premise, focuses on “people, objects and halls”, adheres to“complete closed-loop management, whole chain traceability, all-staff nucleic acid test, and environmental disinfection”, builds a strict defense line, and highlights Chinese wisdom in promoting epidemic prevention and control and developing economy and society. 

In fact, the overall prevention and control of the CAEXPO had already begun before entering the exhibition hall. It was reported that due to the importance of the CAEXPO, all VIPs, exhibitors, staff, volunteers, and reporters need to show their  negative certificates of the nucleic test before entering the exhibition; government officials, VIPs, and staff who attend important activities such as opening ceremony and exhibition inspection had to take the nucleic acid tests two times; all vehicles and objects entering the exhibition hall and even the exhibition itself needed to be disinfected in advance; an epidemic prevention team and a negative pressure ambulance would be deployed in the main reception hotels and other important places, and medical observation points would be set up.

When entering the exhibition hall, strict entrance management had been implemented: made sure the closed-loop management from hotels  to vehicles and then to exhibition halls had been implemented and effectively controlled the instantaneous flow of people in the exhibition hall through staggering peak travel, reserving, restricting people flow and other measures, so that the instantaneous flow of people in the exhibition hall did not exceed 50% of its maximum carrying capacity; strengthened the linkage of epidemic prevention and security, developed a “three-in-one” (three refers to epidemic prevention, security, and tickets) big data integration management system, and added examination of nucleic acid test information so that to provide safe, controllable, convenient and efficient participation experience for merchants.

At the same time, it was regulated that after entering the exhibition hall, it was not allowed to retail or eat frozen fresh food in the alert area; in terms of logistics equipment support, it was required to control the number and scale of sideline activities; after closing, regular environmental detection and disinfection in the exhibition hall must be strictly implemented; finally, strengthening epidemic prevention and control management of catering in the exhibition hall and leaving no area unattended. All in all, every effort should be made to control the epidemic.

In addition to the inspection and supervision scheme, the CAEXPO also put artificial intelligence into epidemic prevention and control: A group of security patrol robots which were similar to small cars and flashing red and blue lights, patrol automatically during the CAEXPO. These robots boast the function of measuring people’s temperature and reminding people to wear masks. “We have adopted big data, cloud computing, and other technologies. At present, the anti-epidemic robot has many functions, such as 360-degree automatic temperature detection, audio and video feedback, and so on,” said Xiang Zhi, the technical developers. Relying on infrared rays, once the abnormal temperature or non-standard wear of masks is detected within 6 meters, the robot will automatically give an alarm and cooperate with relevant staff to deal with the emergency, which not only effectively reduces the labor shortage pressure of the epidemic prevention working group in the hall, but also to a certain stage enhances the CAEXPO’s ability in supervision and risk prevention and control.

“Three swordsmen prevnting the epidemic in the CAEXPO

In the CAEXPO, there were three groups serving as “three swordsmen preventing the epidemic”. The achievement of “zero infection” could not be separated from their support.

It was reported that Guangxi Huayin Medical Laboratory had set up three nucleic acid test points and 24 sample-gathering groups, which could collect 5,000 samples every day on average. Mo Chunyue, Director of the biochemical immune group of Guangxi Huayin Medical Laboratory, said that after each test began, everyone in the test group had to stay in airtight protective clothing for at least four hours and continuously carried out nucleic acid tests for people who entered the exhibition hall in advance. It was because the medical staff  abided by the standards that the virus can be kept out.

The epidemic prevention and control group of CAEXPO and CABIS was mainly responsible for inspecting exhibition halls. For example, whether the temperature measurement device was in the right place, whether there was a regular calibration, whether there were places where one could get epidemic prevention materials in the exhibition hall. At the same time, special workers were assigned to inspect the epidemic prevention material access point, so as to ensure that participants could replace their damaged masks in time,  thus preventing the risk of infection.

If the professional medical staff and the prevention and control teams were soldiers in the front line against the epidemic, university volunteers could be regarded as the “guardians” of the CAEXPO. They were responsible for checking whether guests’ certificates were complete and whether the pass code and health code were in health and safety status. Under strict epidemic prevention and control, even if it was a small thing, volunteers would take it seriously.

“Every time I solve a problem for guests, I get more sense of accomplishment. I know that when I put on my volunteer clothes, I will no longer represent myself, but the image of Nanning and even China,” said Zhou Yang, a young volunteer.

On-line CAEXPO protects economic and trade cooperation under the epidemic

When the 4-day physical exhibition closed in Nanning Convention and Exhibition Center, the on-line CAEXPO was still operated normally. It gave full play to Alibaba’s core technology advantages, provided an immersive integrated interactive experience for domestic and foreign exhibitors and audiences, and made business negotiation and global marketing keep going all year round.

The emergence of the new exhibition mode is largely based on the consideration of epidemic prevention and control. According to the epidemic situation in the world in a certain period, preventing the COVID-19 from entering is still the top priority of the current epidemic prevention work. At the same time, combined with the seasonal characteristics of the border in winter, it is inevitable to continue to strengthen the entry-exit management.

However, as a result, a large number of overseas exhibitors and enterprises can not take part in the CAEXPO on site as in previous years. If we want to improve the participation rate and make it higher than the previous CAEXPO, adopting the innovative mode of “holding the CAEXPO online all year round” is the right choice. It meets the needs of current epidemic prevention and control and minimizes the infection probability of overseas imported cases as well as the mass infection caused by crowd aggregation. At the same time, in terms of economic development, boasting the characteristics of wide coverage, real timing, and large number of participants, it can effectively promote the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and digital economic cooperation and provide a convenient, safe and efficient channel for economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN as well as a channel to achieve mutual benefits under the epidemic.

Security is the premise of development, and development is the guarantee of security. Through the whole process of the event, the CAEXPO adhered to the bottom line thinking, enhanced risk awareness, took the initiative in epidemic prevention, and ensured safety and development at the same time. It not only showed China’s attitude towards epidemic prevention and control on the international stage, but also provided a good model for international cooperation in the post-epidemic era. 

Source: China-ASEAN Panorama