Four at massage shop punished for COVID rule violations

Four people have been punished for allegedly causing the spread of COVID-19 at a local foot massage shop, Shanghai police said on Friday.

A 48-year-old woman who works at the shop, "Weiqiang," which is located in Xuhui District, was reported as a confirmed COVID-19 patient on Thursday.

Two of her colleagues, female, 40 and 45 years old respectively and both surnamed Shen, allegedly asked their friend, a 53-year-old woman surnamed Chen to take regular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in their stead while they had flu symptoms and were aware that they might have been infected by COVID-19, the police said.

Chen did the tests for them on August 9 and 10, and afterwards, the two tested positive for COVID-19 and had infected their colleague.

The two could face the criminal charge of impeding the prevention of infectious disease. The director of the massage shop surnamed Wang, 43, who reopened the shop on August 1 without approval from the authorities, will also be charged.

Meanwhile, Chen will face a 10-day detention for COVID rule violations, police said.