People take a rest in an observation area after getting vaccinated at a vaccination site in Lianhua Subdistrict, Futian District, yesterday. Xia Yuanjie
Shenzhen reported three more asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 discovered Monday and Tuesday, which were linked to the international freight ship operations in Yantian Port, according to a press conference at the Civic Center in Futian District on Tuesday.
“As of Tuesday, seven people, related to the international freight operations, had been confirmed as asymptomatic cases since the first case was spotted Friday,” Wu Hongyan, head of the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission, said at the press conference organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Government Information Office.
The fifth infection was a 33-year-old male surnamed Shi.
Shi, who lives in the Donghai Lijing Garden housing estate in Yantian District, is an employee of Shenzhen Ocean Shipping Tally Co. Ltd. and had worked on the same international freight ship as the other four asymptomatic cases confirmed in Yantian Port over the past week.
Shi’s first nucleic acid test result Friday was negative, but the preliminary result of his second nucleic acid test Sunday was positive. The reviewed result of his second test released by the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention at 4 p.m. Monday was also positive.
The sixth infection surnamed Zhang, 44, lives in Xikeng Community, Longgang District. Zhang works in Yantian Port and participated in operations at the international freight ship with the first four cases announced earlier. Zhang was tested negative Friday through Sunday before being tested positive Monday.
The seventh infection is Wang, 36, who lives in Yuanshan Subdistrict, Longgong District. Her husband works in Yantian Port. Wang tested positive Monday and was later confirmed to be a new case by the city’s center for disease control and prevention.
“Since spotting the first case Friday, the authorities have located 450 close contacts and screened 159,917 people. They all tested negative except for the seven infections,” Wu said.
The genomic sequencing showed the first five infections were of the same source and were caused by the U.K. virus variant. The genomic sequencing of the No. 6 and No. 7 cases is under way.
Yantian has implemented a policy of “one day one check” over the 7,395 people in the Yantian Port area in the days since Friday, according to Hu Zhaoyang, executive deputy head of the Yantian District Government.
Chu Qing, deputy head of the Longgang District Government, said the district imposed controls over Anliang and Xikeng communities after two cases were confirmed in Longgang District and temporarily closed a school whose students were close contacts of one of the cases.
Feng Tiejian, deputy director of the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said nearly 8.1 million people in Shenzhen had been vaccinated by Monday, accounting for 59.3 percent of the city’s permanent population aged between 18 and 59, ranking the city first among Guangdong cities.