As Shijiazhuang was hit by a recent outbreak, fever clinics' roles in contagion intervention have come to the fore.

Visitors are required to take nucleic acid tests at least twice before they are cleared to leave.

The test results, coupled with a checkup and an inquiry of contact histories, help doctors determine whether visitors can be safely transferred to regular hospital wards for further treatment.

Dou Jian, vice-president of the hospital overseeing epidemic control work, said the clinic helps screen possible COVID-19 infections at an early stage, which helps prevent in-house infections and exhaustion of medical resources.

"We had 15 isolation wards and added another 12 to cope with increasing patients during the winter. We are still planning to expand capacity," Dou said.