On Tuesday, the police in Qingtian, Zhejiang province, announced they were charging six local people who returned from Italy last week. The six had not declared to the authorities on their arrival that they were running a fever and had been coughing－symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus－even before boarding the flight in Italy. They were later confirmed to be infected with the virus.

The six travelers had even been coughing on the flight home, giving their co-passengers some anxious moments: some of them might now be needing medical observation for having been in close contact with the patients. By not declaring their condition on arrival, the six passengers ended up wasting precious medical resources and time that could have been used to treat more patients.

That is exactly why the law on prevention of epidemics requires all people entering the Chinese territory during the epidemic to declare their health condition.

The more information, such as that on suspected infection, is shared with the health authorities, the more equipped they will be to control the epidemic.

Only when the health authorities know who might have been infected can they take effective measures to treat the patients and protect others from being infected.

It is hoped that the case of the six passengers from Italy teaches everybody to be honest for the sake of public good.

China's fight against the outbreak within its territory seems to be coming to an end but the fear now is of infections from outside. It is time to strengthen health checks at customs in the global common goal to fight the epidemic.