New virus victim caught Delta strain from overseas source, authorities say

Shanghai's new locally transmitted COVID-19 case has been confirmed to have been infected by the hyper-contagious Delta variant from overseas sources, the city's health authorities said on Friday.

After genetic sequencing tests and analysis by the city's disease control and prevention center, and confirmed by the national center, the virus is highly similar to a recent imported case.

That case was sent to the fever clinic at Songjiang District Central Hospital for investigation from designated quarantine places.

The two cases share the same transmission chain, authorities said.

The infected patient, a 25-year-old woman, is a medical worker at Songjiang District Central Hospital. She hadn't left Shanghai within 14 days before she was confirmed with COVID-19 infection on Wednesday.

The woman was infected because she was exposed to a person or an environment bearing the overseas virus due to her cursory prevention activity, the city's disease control and prevention center said.

She had no contact history with people from high- or medium-risk regions from other cities, no travel history to those areas, and no contact with the cold chain before she became ill, according to the center.

Her 33 close contacts had received two rounds of nucleic acid tests by 11am on Friday. All tested negative and have been placed in quarantine at a designated location.

A total of 176 people who had close contact with the woman's close contacts have all tested twice and all were found to be negative. They have also been placed in quarantine at a designated location.

Also, a total of 10,262 other people have tested negative.

While among the 660 environmental samples collected at related sites, one sample (collected at the water faucet in a bathroom at the patient's residence) has been found to be weakly positive. Others all tested negative by 11am Friday morning, authorities said.