Shanghai's new locally transmitted COVID-19 case was infected by the hyper-contagious Delta variant from an overseas source, and is not linked to the current national outbreak, reports Shine.
The new local case, a 25-year-old woman, hadn't left Shanghai within 14 days before she was confirmed with infection, had no contact history with people from high- or medium-risk regions from other cities, and had no contact with the cold chain before she became ill.
After genetic sequencing tests, the virus was found to be highly similar to a recent imported case. That imported case had been sent to the fever clinic at Songjiang District Central Hospital. The new local case is a medical worker at Songjiang District Central Hospital.
The city's disease control and prevention center concluded that she was infected by exposure to a person or an environment bearing the overseas virus, with the two cases sharing the same transmission chain.
As of Friday morning, the new local case's 33 close contacts, who have been placed in quarantine at a designated location, had received two rounds of nucleic acid tests. All tested negative.
A total of 176 people who had close contact with the woman's 33 close contacts, who have also been placed in quarantine at a designated location, have been tested twice. All tested negative.
In response to the case, a total of 10,262 people had been tested by Friday morning. All the results were also found to be negative. Of the 660 environmental samples collected at related sites, one sample, collected at the water faucet in a bathroom at the patient's residence, was found to be weakly positive.
READ MORE: Everything We Know About Shanghai's New Local COVID-19 Case
Shanghai culture and tourism authorities have once again suspended interprovincial group tours and airline and accommodation packages, following the locally transmitted COVID-19 case, which was reported on Wednesday.
The suspension had been lifted for only one day, after a medium-risk residential complex in Pudong was designated as low risk on Monday.
The new Shanghai case is a resident of Youlu Apartments in Songjiang's Yongfeng Subdistrict, which has now been rated a medium-risk area. The suspension will only be lifted again once there are no medium-risk regions in Shanghai.
The Chinese mainland recorded four new local COVID-19 cases on Thursday, according to a daily report by China’s National Health Commission on Friday.
Two of the cases were recorded in Jiangsu, where the current outbreak started with cases of the Delta variant detected in provincial capital Nanjing. Two further cases were reported in Yunnan, according to the commission.
The commission also reported 29 new imported cases, including nine in Guangdong, six in Yunnan, two each in Beijing, Liaoning, Shanghai, Fujian and Henan, and one each in Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Sichuan.
No deaths related to COVID-19 were reported, the commission added.
All 31 provincial-level regions in the Chinese mainland have urged citizens not to leave the provinces where they live unless it is necessary, and to avoid medium and high-risk areas for COVID-19, with enhanced prevention and control measures, including quarantine, for those that have.
READ MORE: Updated Quarantine Rules for Arrivals to Shanghai
China has identified 29 high-risk and 74 medium-risk areas at the time of publication. Scan the QR to find out where they are, and see the latest numbers:
The current outbreak started with cases of the Delta variant detected in Jiangsu’s capital Nanjing, with infections traced back to a flight from neighboring Russia.
[Cover image via NIAID-RML]
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