The source of recent COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai could be traced back to a transport container that returned from North America in late October, a Chinese public health official said during a press conference on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2020) The source of recent COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai could be traced back to a transport container that returned from North America in late October, a Chinese public health official said during a press conference on Monday.
Two staff members at the Shanghai Pudong Airport tested positive for COVID-19 on November 9 and November 10, respectively, triggering the latest round of outbreak in the largest city in eastern China.
"We found out that those two [patients] went inside and cleaned a transport container that returned from North America on October 30. This container was sealed and was filled with shock-absorbing foams. It was very humid inside.... Those two [patients] did not wear masks when they did the cleaning," Sun Xiaodong, deputy director of the Shanghai Center of Disease Control, said during a press conference on Monday.
Sun added that the two infected workers did not contact any known infected COVID-19 patients or handle imported frozen food in the two weeks before their confirmed infection. The coronavirus strain of those two workers was very similar to the ones being circulated in North America, Sun said.
In response to the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the city, local authorities in Shanghai initiated large-scale polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests among local residents, including all the staff members working at the Pudong International Airport.
As of Monday, Shanghai has identified five new COVID-19 cases since the beginning of November, including the two airport workers that triggered the recent local outbreak.
