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SHANGHAI: Staff at Shanghai’s largest international airport are facing massive testing after a small outbreak of COVID-19 in the city linked to several cargo handlers, with plans in place to vaccinate high-risk workers.
Life in China, where the virus first appeared late last year, has largely returned to normal after strict testing and harsh lockdowns, but there have been a number of sporadic local outbreaks in recent months.
READ: China starts mass testing 3 million in Tianjin for COVID-19
Shanghai has reported six local airport-related infections this month, with the majority of cases in recent days.
Overnight from Sunday to Monday (November 23), workers in full protective gear took Pudong International Airport staff to a multi-story parking lot to test for the virus, with videos posted online by health authorities. from Shanghai showing dozens of people entering the facility.
More than 17,700 people had been swabbed as of Monday morning on the trip to test airport cargo personnel, the official Xinhua news agency reported, and the results had been negative by more than 11,500 so far.
Frontline cargo workers will undergo periodic testing in the future and those in high-risk jobs will also receive vaccinations for COVID-19, Xinhua added, citing Shanghai Airport Authority Vice President Zhou Junlong, who said that the process would be voluntary.
READ: Organized ‘overshoot’: China shows rapid lockdown system after latest COVID-19 outbreak
China has been administering COVID-19 experimental vaccines to people, including state employees, international students, and essential workers heading abroad since July.
On Monday, authorities said that two cargo handlers at the airport who tested positive earlier this month had entered and cleaned a container arriving from North America, without wearing masks, in late October.
China has been launching massive testing campaigns following the emergence of local cases, and authorities have recently shifted their focus to imported frozen foods and other imports, blamed for the resurgence of local infections.
A cluster of domestic cases has also been reported in the northern port city of Tianjin, where state media said 2.6 million people are being tested.
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