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Shanghai reported two new local COVID-19 cases on Friday, and both the patients were staffers working at the overseas cargo aircraft area of Pudong International Airport, the local health authority said.

All cargo terminals at Pudong airport were closed on Friday morning, Caixin reported. The airport has suspended its international freight routes, according to Caixin.

The two men tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after taking the regular nucleic acid test for local airport staff, Wu Jinglei, head of the Shanghai Health Commission, said at a press conference on Friday evening. They had both received vaccines, Wu said.

Epidemiological investigations showed that the two patients had not left the city in the past two weeks, and there has been no evidence showing a link between the two cases and the virus outbreaks in other parts of China, according to Wu. Gene sequencing work is underway, he added.

Shanghai has traced and quarantined 47 close contacts of the two patients as of 6 pm on Friday and the city has conducted nucleic acid testing on over 40,000 related personnel, with 8,151 already testing negative. Samples of the rest are being tested, and the results haven't yet come out, Wu said.

A hotel and a residential community that the two patients live in in Pudong New Area have been designated as medium-risk areas, taking the number of medium-risk areas in Shanghai to three.

To avoid possible further transmission of the virus, Pudong airport has strengthened health monitoring of its staff directly engaged in overseas flight-related services, increasing the frequency of nucleic acid testing, said Zhou Junlong, vice president of Shanghai Airport Group.

Shanghai has found four local COVID-19 cases this month. The previous two patients found on August 3 and 18 were a driver providing services for foreign cargo at Pudong airport, and a nurse working at a hospital in Songjiang district.

Global Times