Local COVID-19 Outbreak at Pudong Airport Now Up to 5 Cases

By Ned Kelly, August 21, 2021

Shanghai reported a further three new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Saturday, reports Shine.

As with the two new cases reported in the city on Friday, all three new Saturday patients are workers at the foreign cargo aircraft operating area of Pudong International Airport, taking the current airport outbreak up to five cases, and making it six cases in the city in the last four days.

The three men, all 45 years old, had received full COVID-19 vaccination, along with all staff members at the city’s two airports, and are reported to have mild symptoms. They have been sent to Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center for treatment.

All three of Saturday's cases were related to the two on Friday, directly or indirectly; two were colleagues of one of Friday's patients, while the third was a close contact of one of the other Saturday patients.

The disease control and prevention authority is conducting genetic sequencing to check how all five became infected.

Two more areas in Shanghai have also been upgraded to medium-risk, taking the city total to five. The two newly designated medium-risk areas are Qianhuiyuanyicun residential complex in Zhuqiao Town and Zhuheyuan, both in Pudong. All places the new patients had visited have also been disinfected.

All close contacts of the new cases have been tested and quarantined, as have the close contacts of their close contacts.

In response to the five Pudong International Airport cases, a total of 74,879 people had been tested as of Saturday afternoon, including mass screening of staff at Pudong International Airport. At the time of publication, all results so far had returned negative, with the exception of Saturday's three new cases.

A further 939 environmental samples had been collected at related sites, 14 of which were positive; 13 at the patients' living places, and one at a close contact's room.

While the operation of cargo flights at Pudong International Airport has been affected due to the new cases, authorities have strictly separated cargo and passenger flights, and, as of Saturday, passenger flights remained unaffected.

However, all passengers bound for Guangzhou from Pudong must take nucleic acid tests after arriving at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, right after landing. The tests are free of charge.

Along with the five Pudong International Airport cases, a 25-year-old female medical worker at Shanghai Songjiang Central Hospital was reported positive on Wednesday.

The city's disease control and prevention center has concluded that she was infected by the hyper-contagious Delta variant from an overseas source, and her case is not linked to the current national outbreak.

There are now five medium-risk areas in Shanghai; four in Pudong, and one in Songjiang District.

Shanghai culture and tourism authorities have once again suspended interprovincial group tours and airline and accommodation packages. The suspension will only be lifted once there are no medium-risk regions in Shanghai.

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, with enhanced prevention and control measures, including quarantine, for those that have.

China has identified 26 high-risk and 64 medium-risk areas at the time of publication. Scan the QR to find out where they are, and see the latest numbers: