Yingqian villagers enter and exit the village freely using their community pass card on November 24.  Photo: Yang Hui/GT

The first local COVID-19 patient confirmed on November 9 in Shanghai, following months without any local infections, has been discharged from hospital after treatment, Shanghai authorities announced on Sunday.

The patient, surnamed Wang and 51, had worked as a porter at Shanghai Pudong International Airport since April 8 and had not left Shanghai ever since. Wang went to the Pudong People's Hospital on November 8 after showing symptoms, and his temperature was 37.5 C.

His colleague, surnamed Lan, was confirmed as being infected the next day in East China's Anhui Province. Neither of them had any contacts with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, nor with any imported cold-chain products or related environments 14 days before they displayed symptoms, Shanghai authorities said after an epidemiological investigation.

However, both of them entered without wearing face masks and cleared a closed aviation container with a large amount of shock-absorbing foam and a humid internal environment that had come back from North America on October 30.

After genetic sequencing, the genes of the two cases were found to be highly homologous and similar to the North American virus strain, indicating that the source of their infections was likely imported, Sun Xiaodong, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a press conference held on November 23. 

Wang lives at Yingqian village, Zhuqiao town in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, which was immediately listed as a medium-risk region after he was confirmed to have been infected. On November 24, the village was designated as a low-risk area, as there had not been any new confirmed COVID-19 cases in 14 days.

The Global Times has learned that villagers can enter and exit the village freely using their community pass card. Those who are not local villagers must provide a nucleic acid test certificate to enter the village.