Staffers at Haikou Meilan International Airport take nucleic acid tests on Thursday after a freight company cargo porter tested positive for COVID-19. Photo: VCG

Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan Province reported a new COVID-19 infection on Thursday after a cargo porter working at a freight company at the city's airport tested positive. 

The 38-year-old porter surnamed Lin, working at Haikou Meilan International Airport, has been transferred to the designated hospital for quarantine and treatment. 

Epidemiological investigations into his close contacts have been launched and related venues have been disinfected and placed under closed-off management. The origin of the infection has not been released as of press time. 

It was the second infection reported in the city following the first case reported on August 1 after the resurgence of the epidemic across the nation spilt over from Nanjing Lukou International Airport in East China's Jiangsu Province since late July when tourism boomed during this year's summer vacation. 

Epidemiological investigations into the confirmed domestic infection reported on August 1 showed that the patient contracted the virus during a visit to Jingzhou in Central China's Hubei Province, which a group of tourists from Huai'an in East China's Jiangsu Province, who contracted the virus in Zhangjiajie, traveled to. Spillover cases from Nanjing's airport to the tourist hotspot Zhangjiajie made Zhangjiajie another breakout spot for secondary transmission of the epidemic. 

Meanwhile, Sanya, the most popular tourism hotspot in the province, conducted a thorough tracing and screening on the close contacts and disinfection on environment after an infected Beijing family with three members paid a visit to the city. 

As the capital city of Hainan, which heavily relies on the tourism industry, Haikou's recent confirmed cases, along with the risks posed in Sanya, have placed a great focus on the recovery of the tourism industry in the province this summer. 

Hainan was one of the regions in China where tourism recovered the most successfully despite the influence of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Tourists from home and abroad paid 65 million trips to the province in 2020, realizing a total tourism revenue of 86 billion yuan ($13.3 billion). 

During the first half of this year, tourists paid 43.21 million trips to Hainan, realizing a total tourism revenue of 81.97 billion yuan, up 260 percent from 2020 and 67.1 percent from 2019. 

However, the resurgence of the epidemic across the nation may cause a break to the accelerating tourism recovery in the province. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a new risk warning on inter-provincial travel on Thursday, dissuading trips to medium- and high-risk regions and strengthening management over inter-provincial travel. 

Global Times