A staff member operates a telescopic manipulator. [Photo by Yan Panpan/China News Service]

China's first contactless inspection sentry boxes at road checkpoints were officially put into use at the Puzhai border trade area in Pingxiang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local officials announced on April 22.

The new sentry boxes are expected to effectively increase the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control capacity at checkpoints to ensure the smooth operation of checkpoints.

Staff members working at the sentry boxes operate a telescopic manipulator to fetch drivers' certifications for entering the border, and then information will be put in an interlayer to pass equipment inspections such as high-speed and high-definition cameras. The whole process only takes three minutes.

During the inspection process, staff members do not need to touch any equipment directly and divers do not need to get out of the vehicle, so that staff members and drivers are protected at the same time.

Since the the sentry boxes were put into use on March 11, the number of vehicles crossing the border in Puzhai reached 7,317, increasing by 123.7 percent year-on-year.