The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) recently issued the COVID-19 Containment Guidelines for Meetings, advising those with fever or respiratory symptoms, especially close contacts of respiratory infection patients, not to attend in-person meetings. Meeting organizers are required to keep a record of contact details of all participants, so that contact tracing and health monitoring can be carried out if necessary.

The Guidelines advise meeting organizers to reduce or avoid large-scale or long meetings and encourage video or audio meetings. A large conference can be replaced with several small panels to reduce the number of people gathering in each meeting room and people's movement between different venues. Organizers should formulate flexible meeting programs and improve or fine-tune the containment measures in light of the COVID-19 situation and relevant government notices. Specifically, the following measures are recommended:

1. The venue shall be reasonably arranged according to the number of participants, and the density of personnel shall be controlled;

2. The spacing between seats in the venue shall be increased as much as possible, and the interval between participants shall not be less than one meter;

3. The organizer of the meeting should keep a record of contact details of all meeting participants, so that contact tracing and health monitoring can be carried out if necessary;

4. When providing services, conference staff should maintain personal hygiene, wear clean uniforms, wash hands frequently, and wear masks as needed;

5. Adequate ventilation should be ensured for the meeting venue before and after the meeting, and air circulation should be maintained during the meeting, preferably through natural ventilation such as by opening windows;

6. The conference organizer should prepare an appropriate amount of masks, thermometers, povidone-iodine and other health protection supplies; and

7. Participants are advised to bring their own cups or drinking utensils.