Most of the recent COVID-19 infections reported in Shanghai have been traced back to an initial infection in a karaoke venue located in Putuo district, Shanghai’s anti-epidemic expert team said on Saturday.

As of 4 pm on Saturday, a total of 23,000 close contacts and 50,000 contacts of these close contacts have been identified and placed under quarantine, Yuan Zheng'an, a member of the city's anti-epidemic expert team said at a press conference on Saturday.

The current flare-up was mainly caused by the gathering of infected people in confined spaces, Yuan said. 

Virus carriers have arrived a wide range of places, including karaoke places and bars where people gathered and had frequent contact, some without appropriate personal protective measures, which increased the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control, he added.

Shanghai has suspended operations of karaoke venues in the city as it tries to stem a recent outbreak, but this karaoke venue in Putuo district was found to have opened for business without approval and also without a strict implementation of epidemic control measures, which caused a large number of infections, according to reports.

By Monday, a total of 305 infections had been found linking to the karaoke venue. The companies and people involved have been punished.

The number of infections reported in Shanghai have been on a downward trend in recent days, Yuan said.

From July 3 to Saturday, 11 new infections were found outside of the control areas, and related data tracking and testing has already started, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said at the press conference on Saturday. 

Global Times