BEIJING — China has dispatched 168 caregivers specializing in elderly care to Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Yu Jianliang, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said on March 9.

A total of 118 caregivers were sent from three other provinces, and the other 50 were sent from other cities of Hubei province to Wuhan for one-on-one support, Yu said at a press conference.

In regions with a milder epidemic situation, especially those areas without confirmed cases, nursing personnel and newly hired elderly caregivers who are qualified in health checks can resume work with the permission of local authorities, Yu said.

In medium- and high-risk regions, elderly caregivers should be quarantined for 14 days in accordance with the relevant prevention and control requirements and confirmed to have no infections or any symptoms before going back to work, he added.

Wuhan has only more than 3,000 nursing personnel helping over 20,000 elderly people in nursing homes, Yu said, adding that some elderly caregivers were quarantined due to the epidemic, which exacerbated the shortage of elderly care personnel.

Yu also noted that the ministry had urged all nursing homes across China to launch the enclosed management on Jan 23, and issued a guideline with detailed standards for operations on issues including entry and exit control, and nursing and psychological consolation for elderly people in nursing homes.

A special edition of the guideline was made public by the ministry on Feb 25 with stricter and more precise regulations for nursing homes in high-risk outbreak regions, according to the official.

He added that the ministry will take further steps to improve the differentiated prevention and control measures while resuming elderly care services in an orderly manner and provide help and care to elderly people who are not in nursing homes, such as elderly people living on their own and left-behind seniors.