An airplane approaches for landing at Beijing International Capital Airport in September 2018. Photo: IC

 

One crew member of Air China's international inbound flight and his wife tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday in Beijing, cutting the record of the capital city reporting zero new cases in the past seven days.

The imported case exposed loopholes in epidemic measures imposed on crew members of international inbound flights. It shows that imported cases are the biggest risk facing the fight against the epidemic, Xu Hejian, the spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal government, said at Monday's press briefing. 

Prior to the confirmation of the two cases, the capital city had seen zero new cases for seven days.

The crew member was the pilot for an Air China flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Shenzhen on July 14. He reached Beijing Capital International Airport on July 15. 

He went to dine outside, watch movies and shopping and took public transportation when he should have stayed indoors for health monitor. He then tested positive on Monday after having an itchy throat a day earlier, according to information offered by Liu Xiaofeng from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

His wife tested positive for COVID-19 as well on Monday. A total of 140 people were categorized as close contacts and 61 as secondary close contacts. 

Xu Haiming, the director for office of anti-epidemic control from Air China expressed regret for causing such problems at the press briefing. 

To further screen out COVID-19 risk, Xu Haiming said Air China requires its personnel to receive nucleic acid tests every day. 

A meeting chaired by Beijing's Party chief Cai Qi on Monday morning also stressed the responsibility of airlines on implementing anti-epidemic prevention and control measures. Cai required a heightened management on crew members so as to ensure no such case will happen again. 

Global Times