Two test positive for COVID-19 after traveling back to Shanghai
A resident shops at a reopened wet market in Shanghai.
Shanghai reported two COVID-19 community infections on Wednesday, both asymptomatic cases who traveled back from other Chinese provinces recently.
The 33-year-old female, who lives in downtown Huangpu District, had traveled to southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The other case, a 27-year-old male truck driver from Hongkou District, returned from a self-driving tour outside Shanghai on Sunday.
"Apart from the cases related to a foot massage parlor in Xuhui (District), most local infections reported recently had traveled to other provinces or cities," said Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission.
"Shanghai is facing greater pressure as a key transport hub during the ongoing summer holiday travel peak."
Multiple domestic cities have reported new COVID-19 infections recently and some of the cases had spread elsewhere, Zhao revealed.
He asked residents to avoid traveling to domestic medium- or high-risk areas, or places under lockdown, instead encouraging them to travel within Shanghai, to the countryside or take "leisure urban tours."
After returning for COVID-hit regions, people should report to their neighborhood or village committees, their companies or hotels they are staying in within 12 hours.
Due to the two new community cases, two areas in Huangpu and Hongkou have been rated as high-risk areas, while another two areas in the two districts become medium-risk areas.
According to the epidemiological investigation, the female patient took Air China's Flight CA4442 from Lhasa to Chengdu in southwest Sichuan Province and transferred to another Air China Flight CA8550 to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Sunday.
She reported abnormalities in her polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test during the self-health monitoring period. She had been to two restaurants and a milk shop in Huangpu.
Local residents brave the scorching weather to undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening in Shanghai on Wednesday.
Two areas in Hongkou and Huangpu districts were designated as high-risk areas on Wednesday.
The other case had driven to and stayed in other provinces and cities between Friday and Sunday. He tested abnormal during a regular PCR screening. He had been to multiple places in Hongkou, Huangpu, Xuhui, Jing'an, Yangpu and Minhang districts.
The case is not related to the previous COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, according to the commission.
More than 400 close contacts of the cases have been put under quarantine, while about 30,000 related people are under screening.
Shanghai has beefed up its health management policies for people traveling back from domestic COVID-related regions amid the new round of pandemic resurgence in many cities, said Zhao.
A weeklong central quarantine is mandatory for people coming or returning from domestic COVID-19 high-risk areas, while a week of home quarantine is required for those coming from medium-risk areas.
People returning from low-risk areas are asked to conduct two PCR tests within three days after arrival.
Besides, those from domestic regions, where a lockdown is in force, or key regions which have rapid COVID-19 transmission or any COVID-19 case that has spread to Shanghai, must also undergo the weeklong central quarantine.
Travelers from Hainan Province, currently bearing the brunt of the pandemic, will have to undergo a three-day home quarantine and another four days of health monitoring after arriving in Shanghai
A six-year-old local boy who also traveled back from Lhasa tested positive on Sunday and has since infected a close contact living with him.
According to the gene sequencing, the boy was infected with the Omicron BA.2.76 sub-variant, which is new in Shanghai but the same with the strain already reported in Tibet, Zhao noted.
Shanghai reported two new community cases on Wednesday.
