Shanghai links two of latest virus cases to cargo container from abroad

The first of Shanghai's latest coronavirus infections emerged in airport cargo handlers who cleaned a container that arrived on a flight from North America, city officials said on Monday.

The news comes as aviation data provider Variflight flagged cancellation of more than 40 per cent of Monday's flights at the Chinese business hub's Pudong airport, one of the world's busiest and a key gateway for international flights during the pandemic.

An airport cargo handler figured in a case reported on November 9, and a colleague in another case reported on November 10, after both together entered and cleaned the container on October 30, said Sun Xiaodong, an official of Shanghai's disease control centre.

Neither was wearing a mask at the time.

"Research at home and abroad has shown coronavirus could live in enclosed, damp environments," Sun told a news conference.

The container was damp inside and sealed off, Sun said, adding that the virus strain detected in both cases was highly similar to that from North America, suggesting the source could be from abroad.

From epidemiological investigations and gene sequencing, Sun said, experts had concluded the source of infection in both cases can be traced to the container both were exposed to, but he did not say if samples had been taken from it.

After five months free of local infections, Shanghai has reported six local cases since November 9, five in the past few days, also involving workers handling cargo at the airport and their close contacts.

Authorities say they have not yet found a link between the first two cases and the most recent ones, however.

One of the five recent cases involves a security inspector at a UPS logistics hub at the airport while two are UPS employees. UPS was not immediately available for comment outside US office hours.

Since Sunday, airport officials have tested 17,719 employees at Pudong airport's cargo handling area, of whom 11,544 proved negative, but test results for the rest have yet to be issued, said Zhou Junlong, vice president of the Shanghai Airport Authority.

"The confirmed cases have only been found at the airport's cargo handling area, and the airport's passenger area is unaffected," Zhou told the same briefing.

He said authorities would run regular nucleic acid tests for high-risk cargo workers and offer them emergency use of vaccines on a voluntary basis.

China recorded 11 new infections on Monday, including two local cases in Shanghai, the National Health Commission said. Mainland China's tally stands at 86,442 cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.