SHANGHAI, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai authorities have carried out nucleic acid testing for staff workers at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport after several confirmed COVID-19 cases were linked to airport personnel.

Addressing a regular press briefing on Monday on the city's COVID-19 control situation, Zhou Junlong, vice president of the Shanghai Airport Authority, said nucleic acid test results of 11,544 freight transport personnel at the airport were negative, and swab samples of another 6,175 staff members are still being examined.

He added that the confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases reported recently are related to personnel in the airport's freight transport area and do not involve the passenger transportation section.

The airport authority is carrying out disinfection of the affected area and has reinforced protection measures for staff with the implementation of close supervision of cold-chain food operation area, Zhou said.

All personnel working at the airport's cargo terminals and cargo areas underwent nucleic acid tests from Sunday evening to Monday morning, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority.

Quarantine workers set up a temporary testing area in an airport parking lot to carry out on-site swab sample collection and testing.

So far, five freight transport staff at the airport have been confirmed positive for COVID-19. Among them, the wives of two of the staffers have also been confirmed infected.

By Monday morning, authorities have tracked 55 close contacts, placing them under quarantine, and screened 2,541 others based on an official epidemiological investigation. They have all tested negative for nucleic acid testings.

Samples of food, objects and environment linked to the confirmed cases have been collected and all of them have been found negative in nucleic acid tests.

Xu Jin, deputy director of the Shanghai municipal administration for market regulation, said after the cluster of confirmed locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases emerged, authorities checked more than 177,000 food businesses. More than 130,000 cold-chain food samples were collected and all tested negative for COVID-19.

According to the press briefing, the earliest two confirmed airport freight staffers did not have contacts with imported cold chain food. Their source of infection is assumed to be exposure to imported aviation containers from overseas. Enditem

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